Time and Unforseen Circumstance
by BenRG
Summary: The Senshi are all reincarnations of people from the Silver Millennium, but if they should meet their previous selves, would they be friends?
1. Prologue  Strange Visitors

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Time and Unforeseen Circumstances

A Sailor Moon Story by BenRG

****

Legal Disclaimer

Naoko Takeuchi created all the characters and the story of Sailor Moon. TOEI Animation produced the original animé 'Pretty Girl Soldier Sailormoon', while DiC Entertainment produced the English Language adaptation of the animé.

This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the Worldwide Web. The author intends no breach of any copyright or trademark property.

****

Author's Notes

This is in response to a thought that I had one night: Exactly how alike is the current generation of Senshi to their equivalents in the Silver Millennium? Would they get along with each other if they met? On the other hand, would they be either too similar or too different for them to tolerate their other selves? I decided to find out by putting the Inner Senshi into a position where they had no choice but to seek out the help of their previous selves. 

I know that the underlying idea is similar to that used in another fan story called _The Heart Remembers_ by Meshala. I'm not stealing your story, because you will soon see that the detail of the story is quite different.

Continuity:The Inner Senshi are all 18; Tuxedo Mask is 23; Rini and Heather are both 12. Queen Serenity is about 500 years old; The Silver Senshi are all between 20 and 25; Princess Serenity is 20; Prince Endymion is 25; Sailor Pluto is a walking time paradox and you can't pin an age on her.

Events take place (in our time) two years after the defeat of Chaos and the healing of Sailor Galaxia.

Events take place (in the Silver Millennium) a year before Beryl conquers Earth and attacks the Moon. 

****

Censor: PG

Prologue – Strange Visitors

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The Palace Gardens   
The Silver Palace, Mare Serenitas, The Moon

Circa 8000 BC

"It is a beautiful night isn't it, Endy?" Princess Serenity asked her betrothed. She was sitting beside Prince Endymion on a stone bench in the Rose Gardens. The princess of the Moon was looking up at her soul mate's homeworld, which seemed to hang overhead beyond the Probability Glass dome that covered the palace and kept the atmosphere from escaping into the insatiable vacuum of space. In a star-speckled sky, the Earth was a mysterious blue-white jewel.

"I never tire of seeing it," Endymion agreed. "It is a thing of beauty." Serenity turned her head and realised that he was looking at _her_. She blushed prettily and looked away in embarrassment. "You know what I think is the most beautiful thing in the galaxy," he told her. "That is you, my one true love."

That made Serenity's blush even brighter. She should be used to it, but hearing compliments and endearments trickle from the lips of this… well this amazingly handsome man made her feel like a 14-year-old again. "Thank you for those few kind words," she mumbled, a silly smile on her face. She looked up again just in time for Endymion's lips to make contact with hers.

After a few minutes of the most pleasurable stimulation, Serenity managed to break contact to breathe. "Endy!" she gasped. "Really! What would happen if mother found us making out in the garden?"

Endymion grinned in that disturbingly predatory fashion that all the Earth-born humans seemed to use when they were in a good mood. "She'd roll her eyes and walk off with that strange secret smile of hers," he replied. "You _know _that she approves of us, Sere. So who am I to stop doing what the Empress of the Solar System approves of? Unless… _you _want to stop?"

Serenity rolled her eyes at the 'kicked puppy' expression that her fiancé had just put on his face. No, she didn't want him to stop. She didn't want to stop _ever_. However, she had to maintain _some_ decorum, although a part of her wanted to start tearing at Endymion's clothes and start rolling about in the flowerbeds with him. She cut off that train of thought _fast_ as she felt the heat rising in her face. Endymion noticed this and grinned again. "I am glad to have your agreement, love," he said with a mocking laugh.

The two began to kiss again, even deeper when, suddenly, Endymion's communicator began to bleep. The Prince of Earth tried to ignore it but the 'call' tone continued. His four bodyguards knew better than to continue bothering him with trivia if he didn't reply to his communicator immediately. Therefore, this was important. It was probably _very_ important. When a siren began to howl somewhere nearby, it confirmed this impression, with interest.

Endymion broke contact with Serenity with an apologetic smile and pulled his communicator out. He smiled slightly as his fiancée tried to tidy her hair after the passionate kiss. Endymion flipped open the small communications device. "Endymion, go," he snapped.

On the small LCD screen, the familiar face of Lt. Col. Kunzite, the head of Endymion's personal guard appeared. "_Endymion, the Palace is on a full alert,_" the white-haired broad-chested warrior snapped. "_They've detected a time portal forming in the Inner Court._" Serenity gasped when she heard that. The Inner Court was the room where her mother met with her Privy Council and ran her state. It was too close to the Queen's private quarters and her presence for comfort, especially with the rising tide of Dark Kingdom activity.

"A time portal?" Endymion repeated stupidly. "I thought only Senshi Pluto herself had access to a working time machine!"

"_So did the Queen,_" Kunzite replied flatly. "_The Senshi have already gathered there. What are your orders?_"

Endymion's mind was racing, but he already had decided on his course of action. "Join them," he ordered. "I'll be there in a minute." He flipped his communicator closed and stood up. "Serenity…"

"Endy! No!" Serenity begged, tears starting in her blue-grey eyes. "It is too dangerous! It could be anyone coming through! Maybe even Metallia itself!"

Endymion grabbed Serenity by the arms. "Sere, you're right that whoever could do this is powerful and dangerous," he said quietly and firmly. "Your mother will need every warrior on the planet to protect her. Besides," and here Endymion smiled ruefully, "it would be bad form not to protect my hostess from a gatecrasher."

Serenity rolled her eyes. "Fine!" she snapped. "I'm coming too!"

Endymion was about to protest, but he saw it was hopeless. Serenity was no soldier, but she could never stand aside when people might be hurt. "Alright," he sighed in a tone of defeat. "Just stay back and if anyone tells you to get out of the room, do as they say." 

Serenity held Endymion's gaze for a moment before looking down and nodding in agreement. The two young lovers turned and fled for the palace.

***

The four Inner Senshi, Senshi Venus in the lead with her Crystal Sword, stood in an arc between Queen Serenity and the swirling green-black vortex of the time portal. It surprised no one that the ever-serene and tranquil Empress of the Solar System had refused to heed Venus' pleas for her to go to a safe place. She was a Queen and no coward to hide as others fought to protect her. The Silver Imperium Crystal hung above and in front of her, sending out rays of intense white light every few seconds. 

As always with such things, the vortex was hovering in the centre of the Inner Court Room with no visible sign of support. There was a subsonic rumble of power everywhere.

Suddenly the main doors to the room swung open. Jadeite, Zoicite, Nephrite and Kunzite ran into the room and took up positions beside the Senshi, their swords drawn and their expressions unreadable. Queen Serenity turned when a rear door that led to the Royal Quarters opened and Prince Endymion walked out, his dark, dangerous eyes narrowed as he considered the time portal. The Queen's mouth opened in protest when she saw her daughter walking out into the room after her fiancée, but she caught the look of determination on the girl's face. Serenity was no coward who would hide away at such a time. Besides 'safety' was an ephemeral concept when facing someone able to travel through time. Much to her mother's relief, the girl stayed hidden behind the reassuringly solid form of Kunzite, peeking over the tall man's shoulder.

Suddenly, six figures appeared in the vortex. Four were of average height and two were much taller. Oddly enough, four of them were almost _surrounding_ the other two as if they were an escort of a kind. The shorter of the two unknown figures in the middle of the formation carried something swaddled in cloth. All of them were wearing grey-white robes with obscuring hoods reminiscent of monastic robes.

The six figures stepped silently from the vortex, which collapsed behind them with as 'whoosh-pop' sound. Silently, the four 'escorts' lined up in front of the two figures that had walked in the middle.

There was a long pause before Queen Serenity spoke. "Who are you, and by what right to you violate the inner court of our palace?" she asked imperiously.

The figure carrying a burden seemed to stiffen. "Queen Serenity?" she asked, for the voice was female and hauntingly familiar, although it the translation spell that altered her words from her native language to Lunarian modulated it, making the voice unrecognisable. 

She took a step towards the Queen only for Senshi Mars to leap in front of her. "If you want the Queen, you'll have to step over my cold corpse, invader," the violet-haired princess of Mars snapped. The fiery young woman drew her soul blade and held it out before her, ready to impale the invader if she took so much as another step forwards. Instantly, two of the 'escorts' stepped in between the two and posed aggressively, clearly ready to knock Mars aside if necessary.

"Enough!" the Queen snapped. "Stand down, Senshi Mars! Despite their unconventional mode of arrival, our guests have not yet demonstrated any hint of ill intent. Until such time as they do, you will treat them as my guests, is that clear?" Growling slightly, Mars lowered her sword and stepped back into her place in the cordon. The Queen stepped forwards. "I am indeed Queen Serenity, queen of the Moon and Empress of the Silver Alliance. To whom do I speak?"

Princess Serenity shivered slightly. Sensing her discomfort, Endymion stepped to her side. "What is it, Sere?" he asked worriedly.

"I _know_ her," Serenity said. "There is something… oh, it's like _déjà vu_ or something similar." The Moon Princess shook her head in frustration. "I know them and yet I don't." Endymion nodded. He felt it too.

Suddenly the woman carrying a burden spoke. "Queen Serenity, we come in peace," she announced in a formal tone of voice. "We come to you in desperation, for you are our last hope to avoid a great tragedy. As for our identities… well… perhaps I should just show you."

With infinite care, the woman set down her burden, pulled back her hood and opened her robes to show the clothes underneath. Taking their cue from their leader, the other visitors did the same. Endymion felt Serenity stiffen in his arms, and Serenity had to concentrate hard to avoid fainting. The Queen's mouth dropped open in a most undignified fashion. "This can't be," Venus whispered. 

A series of electronic beeps broke the silence as Mercury activated her TACS computer and scanned the visitors. "There are some genetic and biological differences," the super-intelligent Senshi of Wisdom and Ice announced. "Nonetheless, the auras are identical," she continued. "They _are_ who they seem to be." Mercury retracted her visor and looked up at the visitors again, trying to force her eyes to accept what they were seeing.

The lead visitor was wearing a white Senshi Fuku with a blue neckerchief, red boots and gloves and a multi-layered blue miniskirt with scarlet ribbons trailing back from the back of the belt. A crystal brooch was in the centre of the fuku's scarlet chest bow and the unmistakable radiance of the Silver Imperium Crystal shone out from it. Sunshine blonde hair hung down from two ondangos on her head, over her shoulders and down to her thighs. Beautiful dove-like white wings were folded against her back. Her eyes were coloured a deep cerulean blue. "Serenity?" the Queen whispered in disbelief. 

__

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 1  Future Imperfect

****

Time and Unforeseen Circumstances

A Sailor Moon Story by BenRG

****

Legal Disclaimer

Naoko Takeuchi created all the characters and the story of Sailor Moon. TOEI Animation produced the original animé 'Pretty Girl Soldier Sailormoon', while DiC Entertainment produced the English Language adaptation of the animé.

This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the Worldwide Web. The author intends no breach of any copyright or trademark property.

****

Author's Notes

This is in response to a thought that I had one night: Exactly how alike is the current generation of Senshi to their equivalents in the Silver Millennium? Would they get along with each other if they met? On the other hand, would they be either too similar or too different for them to tolerate their other selves? I decided to find out by putting the Inner Senshi into a position where they had no choice but to seek out the help of their previous selves. 

I know that the underlying idea is similar to that used in another fan story called _The Heart Remembers_ by Meshala. I'm not stealing your story, because you will soon see that the detail of the story is quite different.

Continuity:The Inner Senshi are all 18; Tuxedo Mask is 23; Rini and Heather are both 12. Queen Serenity is about 500 years old; The Silver Senshi are all between 20 and 25; Princess Serenity is 20; Prince Endymion is 25; Sailor Pluto is a walking time paradox and you can't pin an age on her.

Events take place (in our time) two years after the defeat of Chaos and the healing of Sailor Galaxia.

Events take place (in the Silver Millennium) a year before Beryl conquers Earth and attacks the Moon. 

****

Censor: PG

Chapter 1 – Future Imperfect

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The Inner Court Chamber  
The Silver Palace, Mare Serenitas, the Moon

Circa 8000 BC

Queen Serenity of the Moon was over four centuries old. She thought that nothing would surprise her anymore. Now, she had to think again. 

In defiance of all logic, an imperfect copy of her daughter stood before her, looking at her in a hopeful and worried fashion. She seemed slightly younger, but there was hardness in her eyes that told the Queen that this young woman had seen too many battles and too much death to remain entirely innocent. At her side stood a young man in a white body suit with green and brown over-clothes who was, despite some differences, clearly Prince Endymion. "Hello, Mama," the young woman said. "I'm sorry to drop in unannounced, but you are my last hope."

The Queen stepped forwards and noted with a certain grim humour the shock on her Senshi's faces as they stared at their doppelgangers. There were the same slight differences from one group to another. The newcomers from the future had hair and eyes of a darker shade, their fukus were different and they seemed slightly younger. Most importantly, they all had the posture of seasoned warriors; people who had known for too long battle of a sort that had not scarred the Silver Alliance since its' inception. Despite Mercury's scans and her own feelings, she could not bring herself to believe that this young warrior was her innocent daughter. "Who are you?" the Queen asked at last, in an uncharacteristically harsh tone. "And why do you use the form of my daughter?"

"I know that this is hard to believe," the other Serenity replied, "but I _am_ your daughter… or at least a version of her… from far in the future." She sucked in a deep breath and gathered up the bundle that she had carried through the time stream. "My Senshi and I have come back in time, over Sailor Pluto's objections, I might add, because… well because _you_ told me that your past self was my only hope."

"Your only hope for what?" The Queen asked.

"The only hope to… to cure my daughter." Before the Queen's startled gaze, the other Serenity moved the blanket to reveal the face of a girl, maybe 12 years old, with silver-red hair in the royal hairstyle. The girl's face was so clearly a mix of Endymion and Serenity, but what frightened the Queen was the terrible deathly pale colour of the girl's face.

__

A granddaughter, the Queen thought in amazement. She looked into the other Serenity's eyes and suddenly _knew_ that her daughter's soul looked out through them, despite the incomprehensible physical changes that had taken place. She focussed on her clothing and frowned. The Sailor Fuku in the colours of white, blue and red were something that she had only seen in the history books. It was the colours of Sailor Moon. _My daughter… a Senshi?_ That boded ill for the future, then. In 9,000 years, the situation had never been so bleak so that the Queen of the Moon had to train her daughter to be Senshi Sailor Moon. Yet here she stood. The clear ease and familiarity with her powers that this Sailor Moon showed meant that this was not something that the other Serenity had been forced to accept recently, from her perspective. A bleak future indeed, then.

The other Serenity was looking down at her daughter's pale face, stroking the little girl's cheeks, tears trickling down her face. The other Endymion had stepped to her side and was hugging her, trying to lend her strength in her grief.

The Queen touched her granddaughter's face and felt the taint of evil and the sickness eating at the child's soul. Almost unnoticed, Serenity and Endymion had approached their future selves. The young princess looked down at her unborn daughter's pale face with an expression of horror. "What… what is wrong with her?"

"She has been poisoned with something called a Nightshade Crystal," the other Endymion announced in a bitter, angry tone of voice. "It is something from the Negaverse, but I've never heard of such a thing before. Even the Silver Crystal can only halt the spread of the poison, not reverse it."

"So Beryl is still causing trouble, even in the future?" Endymion asked his counterpart angrily. If it _was_ her doing, he would leave at once to gut the witch and damn the consequences. No one even _touched_ his child and lived! Then he paused, astounded that he would feel this way for a child that hadn't even been _born_ yet!

The future Serenity looked at her love and the Queen could see them silently debating how much it was _safe_ for them to tell. No doubt (and here the Queen had to smile despite the grim situation) Setsuna had given them a long lecture about preserving the time line at all costs. 

Before either of the lovers could speak, the other Mars spoke up. "We were in a battle," she said simply. "Against… an enemy… Not Beryl, though. While we were fighting a large number of youma that was attacking the city, the enemy appeared and stabbed Rini with a crystal spear. Serena knew the moment that Rini was in danger was able to defeat him, but it was too late. As he was dying, he told us that… that the poison would spread through Rini and turn her into a monster that we would have to destroy to protect the innocent. His final act of revenge…" Although the future Sailor Mars' voice was level, the Queen could feel the torment in the black-haired girl's voice.

Senshi Mars jumped forwards again. "And how did this enemy get close enough to the little princess to attack her _Sailor Mars_?" The way she pronounced her counterpart's title was laden with accusation.

The future Sailor Mars looked at her past self in the way that Mercury would look at an interesting new form of microbe in her laboratory. "We were taken by surprise," she said. "The enemy had never targeted Rini before. We didn't even know that he knew she _existed_."

"That's no excuse," Mars snapped. "You can't let your guard down for an _instant_! You should never let events distract you enough to forget you primary duty: to protect the Royal Family!"

"Listen," Future Mars responded in some heat. "We've kept the Princess and her daughter alive for four years against enemies that you can't even imagine. Don't think that you can tell me how to do my job!"

"Oh yeah, you are great!" Mars replied sarcastically. "The condition that the Queen's granddaughter is in is proof of that!"

"Why you stuck up…!" Future Mars stepped forwards, red-yellow flame flaring over her forearms. Mars raised her soul blade again…

"That is enough!" Everyone blinked. The two versions of Princess Serenity had spoken simultaneously. Serenity looked at her future self and giggled self-consciously and the two versions of Sailor Mars jumped apart like scalded cats. 

Sailor Moon continued for both of them. "Raye, I've told you already to _stop kicking yourself_. None of this is your fault." Sailor Moon turned to the older version of Sailor Mars. "Senshi Mars, it is pointless debating over what has already taken place. Lives were at stake, and there had been no threat to Rini before that day. Sailor Saturn was accompanying my daughter at the time of the attack, and she should have been enough of a guardian for any circumstance. Unfortunately for us, the enemy was strong enough to get past her, if only for a moment." Sailor Moon closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. A few more crystalline tears escaped her eyes. She could still hear Rini's agonised combined vocal and telepathic scream as Harbinger stabbed her with his spear.

All the court of the Silver Millennium was shocked into silence. _Did she say 'Sailor Saturn'?_ the Queen thought in disbelief. The very thought of Serenity trusting the Senshi of Destruction and Rebirth with the protection of her daughter horrified the woman. Nonetheless, this told her enough of the enemy that the future Senshi faced. A power that could get past Princess Hotaru was a fearsome enemy indeed.

"O… kay," Mercury said at last, stepping forward to scan Rini. "I'm interested to understand exactly what this curse or poison is. There shouldn't be any dark magic strong enough to resist the Silver Crystal."

"We've tried everything," Future Endymion said. "The Silver Crystal is powerful, but this… _nightmare_ seems to draw its' power from the elemental darkness itself. I'm not sure if anything could stop it… But I pray that we'll find something." The future Prince of Earth stroked a rebellious red bang from his daughter's face, his expression one of repressed fury and helpless agony.

"We consulted with… you," Sailor Moon continued, "but you hadn't heard of anything like this before. However, by our time, most of the magical knowledge of the Silver Millennium is unavailable for one reason or another. You suggested that the past version of you would know something that we couldn't know, or had missed."

The Queen touched her daughter on the shoulder. "I have never heard of this 'Nightshade Crystal,'" she said, "but our library is vast and I don't pretend to have explored even a tenth of it. We'll find the answer, my child, have no fear."

"Yes, we will," Serenity said, stepping forwards to hug her future self reassuringly. She could feel the exhaustion in her counterpart through the physical contact and turned to her mother. "Mother, they need to rest. They are all exhausted."

The Queen turned around to see how the two groups of Senshi were still looking at each other uneasily. Well, that wasn't a surprise. The day had brought too many shocks, and a warrior's response to a shock was to look for something to fight. The Earth Royal Guardsmen were looking on in some surprise and… yes, amusement. Kunzite, especially, seemed to be enjoying Venus' discomfiture as she gazed at her future self. "Let us offer our guests the assistance that they have sought by coming here," the Queen said in a firm, commanding tone.

As if someone had thrown a hidden switch, everyone started moving again. "I want to take the princess to my laboratory in the Healer's Wing for a full scan," Mercury announced. "We'll be able to help better if we know what we are facing."

Future Mercury stepped forwards. "I've already done as thorough a scan as my fuku's in-built TACS can manage," she said. "I'll upload the results to your own system." Mercury nodded in thanks and reached forwards to take the little princess from Sailor Moon's arms. Sailor Moon stepped back slightly and drew her daughter into a more protective embrace. Mercury looked helplessly at the Queen, but Serenity was the one to offer a reassurance.

"You know that you can trust Mercury," she told her future self. "Rini will be fine with her."

Sailor Moon laughed nervously. "Yeah, I know," she said at last. "She's already hurting so badly though. I… I never expected to feel protective towards anyone, but a bit of me is dying with her right now. I'm afraid to let her go."

Serenity's face shone with compassion. "We will help you, Serenity," she said. "I promise that we won't let your little girl die."

Sailor Moon smiled uncertainly for a moment. Her prince squeezed her shoulder and she looked into his eyes for a moment before surrendering her comatose daughter to Mercury. As the blue-haired Senshi moved away with her sad burden, Sailor Moon fell into the future Endymion's arms and began to weep. Serenity touched her future self's shoulder in sympathy and felt grateful for _her_ Endymion's reassuring presence. _What kind of future awaits us?_ she asked herself. _Can I endure a time that is so violent that it will force me to take up arms and learn to fight as a Sailor Senshi?_

After a moment, the Sailor Senshi of the Moon stifled her tears and turned around. The Queen had already summoned help. A redheaded woman in the graceful clothes of the palace's servants appeared through the doors to the Royal Quarters. When Sailor Moon saw her, her eyes bugged out slightly. "Naru," the Queen said, "I want you to prepare state rooms for our guests. Give the ones in Senshi Fukus single rooms. The two who look like my daughter and her young man can have a double room." The Queen winked at Sailor Moon in a way that made both versions of her daughter colour prettily. 

Naru was staring at the near-exact duplicates of the Inner Senshi, her Princess (and best friend) and the Princess' fiancé in shock. She felt frozen to the spot. "Now please, Naru," the Queen said gently.

"Oh! Of course, Your Majesty! This way please… uh… Ma'am… uh…" Naru's voice trailed off helplessly. "What should I call you?" she asked in a quiet voice.

Despite the situation Sailor Moon laughed. It was a sound so like Serenity's bell-like joyous laughter that it made Naru's disorientation far worse. "You can call me Serena," Sailor Moon announced. "The other Sailor Mercury is Amy. Venus is Mina, Mars is Raye and Jupiter is Lita. The hunky guy at my side is Darien."

Darien rolled his eyes in a long-suffering way, making the future Senshi smile, although Raye's smile was grim. 

***

Serena looked around the beautiful stateroom that Molly… no 'Naru' had assigned to her and Darien and tried hard not to be overwhelmed. There was an air of boundless prosperity and peace about everything in the palace. Hell, even the fittings in the _en-suite _bathroom were made of gold! Tapestries of amazing complexity and beauty decorated the walls and an astounding landscape painting of the surface of the Moon was on the wall in the room's living area. No wonder the Silver Millennium was remembered as a golden age. Both she and Darien had transformed back to their civilian guises as soon as they were in the room and they were trying to relax after the horrific events of the past twenty-four hours.

Darien was pacing restlessly. Every moment away from Rini was like a torture to him. Serena felt it too, but she had always been gifted with a… a _serenity_ that enabled her to handle such situations without loosing her cool. Little did he know that it had taken all of her self-control not to attack Amy's past self when she had touched Rini. The only thing that was holding her together was the clear understanding that she wouldn't be able to help her future daughter if she collapsed into hysterics. 

"I'm sure that they will be able to help," Darien said at last.

"I hope so," Serena replied, her voice level. She was about to continue when there was a gentle knock at the door. "Come in," Serena called out, standing to greet her visitor. Of all the people that could have peeked around the door, the one she least expected was… well… _herself_. "Um… hi there, er… Your Highness," Serena offered.

Serenity smiled in her best regal and reassuring manner and entered the room. She could understand her counterpart's confusion, of course. What _do_ you call _yourself _anyway? She came to a decision. There was no point standing on ceremony with… herself. "Call me 'Serenity' if you prefer," she said.

"Okay, but only if you call me 'Serena,'" was the reply. The two near-identical young women gazed at each other in perplexelment for a moment before nodding in agreement and giggling self-consciously in unison. 

Darien could feel his brain trying to force its' way out of the front of his skull. One Serena was a thing of dreams. Dealing with two of them would be a near-impossibility. Gods alone knew what would happen if Serena had to transform into her 'Princess' form. Two identical princesses would drive him crazy!

The two young women stood awkwardly before Serena rose. "Um… what can I do for you, Serenity?" she asked.

The Princess seemed to come from far away in order to reply. She had been staring at Serena and Darien's clothes. Both were wearing the clothes they had worn the morning of the last battle. Serena was wearing a white blouse and jeans with a small red hip bag, her Eternal Locket on the breast of her blouse. The Star Locket that Endymion gave to Serenity so long ago… but only a few months ago in this time period… was around her neck. Darien was wearing jeans, a black cotton shirt and sneakers (with that green blazer of his now thrown over the back of a chair). Frankly, they looked like a pair of commoners, and that made Serenity uncomfortable. _What happens to us in the future?_ she asked herself in dismay. "Oh, I was just wondering how you were settling in," Serenity said. "Have you got everything that you need? Are you hungry? Perhaps you would like…" here Serenity's voice shuddered delicately, "a change of clothes?"

Serena caught her counterpart's reaction at once. _She doesn't like our clothes,_ she realised. She looked down at her clothes and couldn't understand the princess' problem. _Well, it isn't a ball-gown, but I'm certainly not threadbare or colourless!_

"Maybe we should get some contemporary clothing," Darien commented. "Our clothes are civilian attire in our time period, but here it makes us look like a pair of clowns."

"And then we can get some food," Serena added with a lustful smile. "Do you have any chocolate in the palace, Serenity?"

__

Hell yes! Serenity thought, but did not say. "Chocolate is a desert dish," she said primly. "I'm sure that we can find something more appropriate for a late supper." _Gods! I'm turning into my _mother_!_ the Moon Princess wailed silently. _Why am I saying this?_

"Chocolate is one of the basic staple foods," Serena countered stubbornly, folding her arms aggressively.

Serenity scowled back. "This is my mother's palace, Serena," she snapped "As long as you are a guest here, you will abide by her rules!"

"Some hosts you are," Serena responded snidely. Inside she winced. That had come out all wrong! She didn't _want _to insult anyone.

"Serena!" Darien was horrified. "You don't go around insulting your hosts, no matter how little you approve of their menu."

Serena and Serenity both rolled their eyes _simultaneously_ at his tone of voice. Endymion spoke to Serenity in a similar way sometimes. "Dari-chan!" Serena protested in a whining tone of voice that made her inner self shudder. "Don't you understand that they are trying to deny us _chocolate_?"

"By the Goddess, you are such a baby! Why don't you grow up?" Serenity sneered and kicked herself mentally for being so mean. _What is wrong with me suddenly?_

Serena gasped when she heard that put down. Her blue eyes blazed with anger as she stalked towards her past self, her hands clenched into fists. "Why you… stuck up, spoilt… _creep_!" she spat.

"Creep? You can't call me that you… you… dirt-common _hussy_!"

"Snob!"

"Cry-baby!"

Serena's mouth dropped open when she heard that oldest and most loathed insult. 

Serenity clearly saw her death in her future self's eyes for a moment. She suddenly realised that she was alone in a room with two seasoned warriors who might not care about causing a time paradox or two in order to settle an insult. 

She still couldn't understand how this argument had escalated so quickly. One quite innocuous comment about food (her favourite food too) had somehow turned into a screaming argument. Why did she even have to make a comment about 'suitable' anyway? She and Endy pigged out on chocolate some nights and _she_ was a princess, not a commoner who, by some joke of fate, had been made the Senshi of the Moon… _Goddess! I'm even insulting her in my head! What is wrong with me?_

Serena had finally recovered from her infuriated paralysis. "Get out," she grated, shuddering with anger. _Go, please, _she added silently, _before I get so mad that I do something stupid! Please!_

"As these are your rooms, I will leave as you request," Serenity said in a superior tone. "You are my mother's guests and I will give you the appropriate respect as such. Don't expect anything else… _Sailor Moon_!" The princess turned and swept out with an excess of royal dignity. 

"Good riddance," Serena snapped. However, those words covered heartbreak at the naked _terror_ she had seen on the Princess' face for a few moments.

"Serena, how could you?" Darien asked in a horrified, disappointed tone of voice.

***

Outside Serenity suddenly burst into tears, upset beyond words by the fury on her future self's face at the end of the argument and horrified at the snide and condescending tone that she had used as she spoke to Serena. _Am I so isolated and spoilt that I can't even talk to _myself_ without alienating her?_ She asked in horror and grief. _Am I really such a bad princess? If so, what kind of queen will I be?_

She fled towards her own apartments, inconsolable.

***

Inside their rooms, the two travellers from the far future were conducting an ad-hoc post mortem. "Dari-chan, how can you take _her_ side?" Serena wailed. "She is a stuck-up, mean-hearted _snob_! Did you hear the names that she called me?"

"Yes I did," Darien said sternly. Serena smiled in triumph and opened her mouth to speak when Darien interrupted. "However, I also heard the names that _you_ called _her_. All right, she was a bit condescending, but that is the attitude of royalty. There was no cause for you to start screaming at her!" Serena looked shocked, but didn't reply so Darien pressed on, praying that he could find the right words. Then, inspiration struck him. "The easiest way to avoid an argument is not to respond to a taunt," he said. "You learnt that during those first few months that we knew each other." His eyes twinkled with humour and he could hear voices shouting 'Ondango Atama!' and 'Darien-baka!' Serena, despite her distress, managed a giggle, clearly remembering the same thing. "Usako, we are their guests," Darien said gently. "You can't speak to them this way. Your mother… _both_ of them… would be very disappointed in you."

Hearing that, Serena burst into tears. Darien instinctively rose and embraced her. "Oh Darien, I'm so ashamed!" Serena gasped out around her sobs. "I didn't want an argument but… but everything she said seemed to irritate me! She seemed to know _just _the wrong thing to say!"

Darien hugged her tightly and laughed gently. "That is one of the problems with talking to yourself," he said. "You know exactly how to upset each other."

"I don't know how I managed to get off on such a wrong footing with her!" Serena moaned. "How can you dislike _yourself_?"

Darien considered that. "Well… Serenity isn't really _you_," he said at last. Serena gave him a weird look. "She is you as you were back in the Silver Millennium. She has lived a totally different life: One of duty, protocol and dignity. You've lived the life of a middle-class girl who runs wild with her friends, cares for her own needs and has a weekend job at the Crown Arcade. Most importantly, you have spent four years as a magical warrior, a lifestyle that she can't possibly even _imagine_. The only thing that you and Serenity have in common is a soul. Apart from that, you are totally different people."

Serena held onto her soul mate for a while, trying to process this. "I should have been nicer, and I should have let those insults go," she said at last. "Gods know that I have had enough experience of that thanks to you and Raye." Darien grunted in displeasure when he heard that, making Serena giggle slightly. She suddenly looked up and gave him a little kiss on the lips. "Thanks Dari-chan! I'm going to fix the damage before it is too late!" Before Darien could protest, or even think, Serena was out of the door and racing down the halls of the palace.

***

Serena would, perhaps, not be as surprised as she could be if she knew that her other self was also deep in a pit of self-recrimination. Serenity was sitting on the stone bench in the rose garden, her favourite place in the palace gardens, crying her heart out. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice. "Your Highness? What's wrong?"

Serenity looked up. "Oh, Luna!" she gasped at the tall and elegant black-haired woman. "I'm so wicked! I'm a terrible, cruel, heartless person!"

Luna was shocked at the distress in the face of that the child she had helped raise from infanthood. Instinctively, she dropped down on the bench beside Serenity and engulfed her in a hug. "Oh, my poor Little Kitten," she whispered, stroking her hair. "What is it? You can tell your Aunt Luna. Have you and Endymion had a fight?"

"No! Worse!" Serenity sobbed, too upset to think to be discreet. "I've had an argument with _myself_! I've called her terrible names and… and… now she _hates_ me!"

Luna tried to process her goddaughter's words for a few seconds before realising what she was talking about. _The travellers from the future that Serenity told me about,_ she thought, remembering that curious audience with the Queen just a quarter-hour ago. "You had an argument with the Sailor Moon from the future?" Luna asked. "What was it about?"

"That's the problem!" Serenity wailed. "I don't know! I took one look at her clothes and I took it into my head that she is some sort of commoner and that I should dislike her! Then we start calling each other names! I don't even know _why_ we started shouting at each other! How can I be a good queen if I treat one of my own future Senshi like that?"

Luna restrained an urge to laugh. Serenity was getting all mixed up… as usual. "It isn't that bad, Little Kitten," she said. "She is _you_ after all. I'm sure that you will understand and forgive yourself… later on."

Serenity broke the hug and looked at her godmother and tutor thoughtfully. "It is so confusing," she admitted at last. "I don't know whether I am coming or going!" She shook her head. "You didn't see the look on her face though, Luna. She _hated_ me for what I said."

"If you really were insulting, of course she would be angry," Luna said. "That is natural. What made you think that she was some sort of commoner anyway?"

Serenity shrugged. "Oh, I don't know," she said. "Her clothes and her manner were just not… _royal_. She didn't have any poise or dignity."

Luna considered that thoughtfully. Unlike her relatively innocent goddaughter, she had been able to come to several conclusions based on the future princess' double status as Senshi Sailor Moon. "She isn't what you expected that your future would hold, is she?" she asked at last.

Serenity shook her head. "No, she isn't, Luna," Serenity admitted. "I expected to grow up to be a regal, wise ruler. Instead I see an ordinary common girl wearing the sort of clothes I would expect of a worker from Endymion's homeworld."

"Theirs must be a totally different time," Luna said at last. "For your mother to order you trained to serve as the Senshi of the Moon, the war against the Dark Kingdom cannot be going well. I doubt that your future self has the time to worry about protocol, deportment or royal dignity. For her, it is fighting to survive day-to-day, ensuring the safety of her court and subjects and ensuring that her own daughter is safe and raised properly." Luna looked at Serenity with wise, amber eyes. "And that is what _really_ upset you, isn't it?"

Serenity nodded. "I'm afraid," she said at last. "I don't want to live in that world."

"Senshi Pluto is always telling you that the future is not set," Luna reminded the girl. "Maybe you won't have to. However, even if you must, you have to admit that she is doing well. Her Senshi are all strong and loyal and she still has her prince at her side. Did the future Sailor Mars not say that they had just beaten yet another enemy when Princess Rini was hurt?" Serenity nodded. Luna smiled serenely. "There you have it. It isn't so dark, is it?"

"But _why_ couldn't we get along?" Serenity whispered as she tried to draw as much reassurance from her wise godmother as she could.

"Probably because you are very different from what she remembers and she from what you imagine," Luna suggested. "You should also remember that she is very worried about her daughter." Luna chuckled and shook her head before continuing. "I'm no expert on non-causual interpersonal relationships, but I imagine every time traveller has problems getting on with their past or future selves." The Queen's chief advisor leaned over to brush a little hair out of Serenity's tear-reddened eyes. "Dry those tears now, Little Kitten," she said. "Find her and apologise. I think you will find that you _can_ be friends."

***

"Uh… can I come in?" asked a very familiar voice. Darien recognised it immediately, because it was _his_ voice.

He stood up and gestured courteously to his past self to enter the room that Naru had assigned to him and Usako. "Sure, make yourself at home," he told Prince Endymion.

The young man was not wearing his ceremonial armour right now, and he looked somehow more… _at ease_ wearing just a comfortable jerkin and britches. Darien could empathise with that. He _hated_ the constricting armour of his 'Prince' form, almost as much as he disliked the stuffy formality of his original Tuxedo Mask costume. "So, what can I do for you?" he asked.

Endymion caught Darien's eyes for a moment and the two self-possessed young men spent a few moments considering one another. "What in the name of the seven hells is going on, Darien?" Endymion asked. "How did your… _our_ child end up in the firing line, and _why_ is Serenity fighting as a Senshi? She is too precious for you to risk her that way!"

Darien bristled briefly at the thought that Endymion was clearly underestimating his Usako. Then he pulled himself up short. _He doesn't know her as I do_, he reminded himself. _He sees her as a fragile princess, when I've seen the tough-as-nails Champion of Love and Justice._ "Well, Serena is a lot tougher than you might think," he said with a slight smile. "She has a sense of responsibility that keeps her fighting, even though I and the Inner Senshi have _begged_ her not to on more than one occasion. She may be scared, but she is also brave and determined to protect her people. Also, I've learnt that she doesn't like being treated as a delicate and helpless little girl."

"Neither does Serenity," Endymion agreed, "but that isn't surprising is it?" Both men smiled, realising that they were talking about virtually the same person. "However, I think that I could handle a temper tantrum or two." Endymion waved his hands in frustration. "Just _tell_ her how it is going to be!"

Darien smiled. Endymion had obviously failed to make the logical leap from Serena wearing a Senshi Fuku. "Endymion, you fail to realise that this would be a temper tantrum from a young woman who could demolish a moderate-sized building with a gesture," he remarked with a grim smile.

"You are serious?" Endymion was visibly shocked at this news. "She is a powerful Senshi?"

"While at a quarter of her current power levels, and exhausted after a long battle, she handed Uranus and Neptune their heads in a two-on-one duel for their insubordination," Darien said. "I've never seen Neptune look so… _scared_ in my life."

Endymion was visibly impressed. "How in the name of the White Goddess did this happen?" he asked. "I can't imagine the Queen _ever_ permitting her daughter to train as a warrior!"

Darien shrugged. "I would prefer not to say," he said. "It might affect the timeline. Suffice to say that everyone makes mistakes. However, some mistakes turn out to be for the best. Without Sailor Moon, Earth would have been rendered a lifeless ball of rock years before my subjective present day."

Endymion nodded, his dark eyes narrowed as he considered this. "I know that the Lunar royal family has a lot of untapped potential," he said at last. "Maybe…" he shook his head. "Nah, Serenity isn't the sort to try this. I don't know how you convinced her to do it in your time." He looked up at his future self with a boyish, infectious grin. "So, tell me all about your time and all the battles that you've been in."

Darien raised a brow in surprise at how… _bubbly_ his past self was. "Okay," he said at last and the two settled down to exchange old war stories.

***

After Luna left, Serenity sat on the bench for several more minutes, trying to think what to do next. Suddenly a familiar voice called out. "Your Highness?"

Serenity turned, her eyes wide with alarm until she confirmed that Serena was still powered-down. "S… Senshi Moon!" she gasped. "Please, come and sit with me." She nervously touched the bench beside her in a clear offer.

Serena laughed. "Can we drop the titles and protocol?" She asked. "I'd like to be able to call you 'Serenity' again, and I want you to be able to call me 'Serena.'"

Serenity looked at her future self for a moment. "Is that possible?"

"I hope so," Serena replied. After a moment, Serenity nodded and Serena sat next to her. 

For a few minutes, the two young women sat in silence, each a strange, distorted mirror image of the other. "How did you find me?" Serenity asked in a desire to break the silence.

"I… just knew where you were," Serena said helplessly. "Just like how I always know where Darien and Rini are." Serenity nodded in understanding. She always knew where her mother and Endymion were too. It was an awareness of those who touched and, to a certain degree, shared your soul. The two were silent again for a while.

"I want to apologise," they said simultaneously. Equally in unison they started, gasped, opened their mouth to speak again and then burst into laughter. Serena was holding her sides in pain; she was laughing so hard, so she gestured for Serenity to speak first.

"I'm so sorry for being mean, Serena" she managed after sobering slightly. "I shouldn't have called you names, and I certainly shouldn't have judged you so harshly."

"And I'm sorry too, Serenity," Serena said. "I had no right to insult you or make demands or whine just because I couldn't have my favourite treat. It isn't right to treat your host like that."

The two looked at each other for a long moment. Both of them had calmed down and each was processing the other's apology. Finally, Serenity spoke again. "It is a terrible place isn't it, your future?"

"Oh no, it is okay really," Serena said. "It is just…" she stopped, wondering how much it was safe to tell. "It is very different from this time," she said at last. "I… you… we…" Serena shook her head, giving up trying to understand the paradoxes and continued. "I live a very different life from the one you do. For instance, my royal status isn't publicly known."

That shocked Serenity. _That bad? Does the Silver Alliance even exist any more?_ She knew from her lessons from Senshi Pluto that she couldn't know the answer to that question. Indeed, she _must not_ know it. "Give me some hope," she said at last. "At least tell me that we beat Beryl eventually and that peace is restored."

Serena sighed and averted her eyes. "We do beat Beryl," she said at last, "but not for a very long time, and only at a terrible cost." She looked up into her counterpart's blue-grey eyes before continuing. Maybe she was risking the time line, but she could not lie to _herself_. "Peace will not be restored for a long time after that victory. Too much damage will be done to make it an easy or quick task."

"Make me feel optimistic, why don't you?" Serenity said wryly. She looked at Serena's hand and saw the ring on her left ring finger. "That is beautiful," she said. "What does it represent?"

"It is called an engagement ring," Serena said. "It shows that Darien and I are betrothed."

Serenity blinked. "I thought that you would be already married, what with you having a daughter!" Serenity sounded shocked. Serena couldn't blame her. Some moral norms transcended time.

"Well, Rini, her full name is Serena Rose, by the way, isn't my daughter _yet_. From my perspective, she hasn't even been born yet!"

"She's a time traveller from your future?" Serenity asked, surprise colouring her voice. Serena nodded and her counterpart scowled. "What is Senshi Pluto up to?" she asked. "I must ask mother to speak to her about this!"

"Rini visits us regularly from her own time," Serena explained, and decided _not_ to explain the details of Rini's home time-period. "Her mother… well, the future version of us both… decided that she should train in her role as the future Sailor Moon with my Senshi and I." Serena grinned in embarrassment. "I'm not sure of the exact reasoning behind that decision. Pluto tends to be a bit closed-mouthed about these things."

Both of them giggled in unison as they recalled their own dealings with the enigmatic Champion of Time.

"It must be exciting, being a Sailor Senshi," Serenity said.

"It can be," Serena agreed. "But it is also frightening. I've been in fights that you can't imagine against monsters that make Beryl look like an inoffensive flower by comparison. I've seen my Senshi mown down like wheat in battle. I've nearly died more times than I can count, and I _have_ died more than once. Only the power of the Silver Crystal saved me and my friends." Serenity shuddered and hugged herself defensively as she listened. Serena touched her arm in reassurance. "It isn't all bad," she said. "I have my family, and I have Darien and my Senshi… my friends. The good times outweigh the bad."

Serena was silent for a while. "We aren't _really_ the same person, you know," she said at last. "Not really. The line connecting you and I is… blurred. Bad times and desperate measures." Serenity nodded. She had suspected something like that to be the case. It would explain the subtle physical differences between them. "We are…" Serena continued and paused before giggling slightly. "We are like twin sisters who were separated at birth and have lived completely different lives. Now we've been reunited and we've got to learn how to get along."

Serenity smiled. "I like that thought," she said at last. "Sisters?"

"Sisters," Serena agreed. The two hugged and the identical crescent moon birthmarks on their foreheads blazed golden-white with power as their souls touched through the physical contact.

Suddenly there was a loud 'bleep.' The two soul-sisters broke contact, instantly recognising the sound. Serena pulled out her communicator and flipped it open. "Moon here," she said.

"_Serena… I… that is Senshi Mercury has finished examining Rini,_" Amy announced. "_The Queen has asked for us all to meet in Meeting Room 3 in the Healer's Wing. She said that Serenity would know the way._" 

Serena looked at Serenity, who nodded confidently. "We're on our way, Ames," she replied and flipped the communicator shut.

Serenity looked at Serena for a moment. "We _are_ going to save Rini, Serena," Serenity promised.

"I know you will, Serenity," Serena said. 

There was a long pause. "Hey, I just thought," Serenity said, "you still need a change of clothes! Come on, we'll stop by my rooms before we go to the meeting." Serena looked at her past self thoughtfully. As she thought about Darien's reaction to seeing her in near-identical dress to Serenity, a sly smile appeared on her face, one that was mirrored on Serenity's face. The two girls joined hands and ran off.

__

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 2  The More Things Change

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Time & Unforeseen Circumstance

A Sailor Moon fanfiction by BenRG

****

Legal Disclaimer

Naoko Takeuchi created all the characters and the story of Sailor Moon. TOEI Animation produced the original animé 'Pretty Girl Soldier Sailormoon', while DiC Entertainment produced the English Language adaptation of the animé.

This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the Worldwide Web. The author intends no breach of any copyright or trademark property.

****

Author's Notes

This is in response to a thought that I had one night: Exactly how alike is the current generation of Senshi to their equivalents in the Silver Millennium? Would they get along with each other if they met? On the other hand, would they be either too similar or too different for them to tolerate their other selves? I decided to find out by putting the Inner Senshi into a position where they had no choice but to seek out the help of their previous selves. 

I know that the underlying idea is similar to that used in another fan story called _The Heart Remembers_ by Meshala. I'm not stealing your story, because you will soon see that the detail of the story is quite different.

Okay, I offer some apologies in advance. I am sorry if the conversations between the two versions of the characters get a bit confusing sometimes. I have tried to make it as clear as possible who is speaking or doing something. Secondly, I have to apologise for the very technical nature of the discussion between the two versions of Sailor Mercury. I really think that Amy talks like that, and a conversation between _two_ of them would obviously get _very_ technical. 

Continuity:The Inner Senshi are all 18; Tuxedo Mask is 23; Rini and Heather are both 12. Queen Serenity is about 500 years old; The Silver Senshi are all between 20 and 25; Princess Serenity is 20; Prince Endymion is 25; Sailor Pluto is a walking time paradox and you can't pin an age on her.

Events take place (in our time) two years after the defeat of Chaos and the healing of Sailor Galaxia.

Events take place (in the Silver Millennium) a year before Beryl conquers Earth and attacks the Moon. 

****

Censor: PG

Chapter 2 – The More Things Change…

__

The Guest Wing  
The Silver Palace, Mare Serenitas, The Moon

Circa 8000 BC

Raye Hino was more than willing to admit that at the best of times she could be catty and highly-strung. However, after the roasting she had received from her past incarnation, she was on a razor's edge. Right now, she was wandering around the Silver Palace, dressed in a simple red jerkin with black leggings that, as Naru had promised, combined both comfort and ease of movement.

She couldn't get Senshi Mars' accusation out of her head, no matter how hard she tried. You see, she _did_ blame herself. She ought to have insisted that at least two of the Senshi stay with Rini and Heather while the rest of the Senshi (along with Tuxedo Mask) raced to face the storm of youma that Harbinger had unleashed in Juubian Municipal Park. Serena's insistence that no one could have predicted that the Negaforce-twisted husk of General Jadeite would strike at the princess from the future only made Raye's guilt worse. She was one of Serena's closest advisors, damn it! Second in command of the Inner Senshi behind Mina, as well as the clearest thinker of the group (in her own view)! She _ought_ to have been more aware of the potential threat…

Raye pulled herself to a halt. As her guilt and self-reproach grew, her pace had picked up until she was virtually running down the hallways. She had stopped when she noticed several passers-by staring at what looked like the Princess of Mars racing past them, her face twisted with anger and fear. She looked around and managed a nervous half-smile as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Okay people," she said with a nervous chuckle, "nothing to see here! I'm just… er… out jogging!" Raye received quite a few sceptical looks, but the staring servant, nobles and visitors quickly dispersed. _I'm going to hear about this from Serena_, Raye predicted darkly to herself

Suddenly, Raye sensed a half-familiar presence nearby and she whirled to face the person standing in the shadow of a nearby column. "Something bothering you, Pyro?" asked the tall blond man with the arrogant smile. Raye stepped back, instinctive fear filling her heart. She flexed her hand and felt her Crystal Henshin Wand materialise. She took on an aggressive-defensive posture and prepared to toast this horror once and for all…

"I don't know how you survived the Princess' wrath, Evil One," she snapped, "or how you followed us, but it is_ over_ now." She raised her wand. "Mars Crystal …" Then she paused. Something was wrong here… or rather it was _right_. There was none of the poisonous aura of evil that she associated with this man.

The man jumped back the minute Raye began her incantation. "R… Rei? What's wrong love?" Jadeite asked, his face reflecting genuine concern. 

Raye shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts of her confusion. "Stay back," she said. "I'm not what I seem."

"Not…?" Jadeite was confused now, but that only reflected the confusion in the heart of the woman who he thought was his fiery Martian fiancée. She looked at the man's royal blue uniform with the red trim and realised that this was _not_ the Jadeite she knew, nor was it Harbinger, the twisted nightmare that was all that remained of him after four years encased in a dark crystal. It was Colonel Jadeite of the United Kingdom of Earth's defence forces, 'Jed' to his friends. The man who her past self loved with her usual all-consuming passion. "Rei," he tried again.

"No, I'm not," Raye finally said, managing to focus her mind. "I'm the future Sailor Mars, remember?" 

Jadeite flushed with embarrassment as Raye self-consciously dismissed her Henshin Wand. "Gods! Sorry about that, Lady Raye," he said. "You really are the spitting image of the Princess." Jadeite paused and then laughed ruefully. "Don't tell Rei about this, or she will give me such a burn that I won't be able to sit down for a week." Raye laughed and gave her promise. Jadeite gave Raye a measuring look before continuing. "What were you talking about earlier?" he suddenly asked. "Why were you getting ready to fight me?"

Raye immediately felt vulnerable. She _couldn't_ possibly tell Jadeite the truth: That in less than a year's time, he would be a mind-controlled slave of Beryl and the Negaverse. She floundered for a moment before finally settling on a response. It wasn't the best possible one, but it was the only one that she could think of that would answer Jadeite's question _without_ answering it. "I'm sorry, Colonel," she said, "but I'm not permitted to tell you that. I _could _say, of course, but Pluto would have to kill us both if I did."

Jadeite smirked at that. He knew Senshi Pluto's reputation for tenaciously guarding the 'proper' timeline. Obviously he would have to find out why the future version of his love saw him as a foe… when it happened. That wouldn't stop him from trying to trick her into revealing all, of course. "You look at a loose end," Jadeite said. "I was just going to join Rei in the gymnasium for some exercises. Would you care to join us?"

Raye cocked her head to think for a moment. "Yeah, sure," she said with a tense smile. After everything that she had gone through over the past few days, it would be good to take out her frustrations on a practice dummy.

***

"So… you are me?" Minako, crown princess of Venus asked as she looked at her doppelganger. 

"Sort of, I think," Mina Love replied. "I don't understand all of it." Mina paused before laughing. "Scratch that, I don't understand _any_ of it. Pluto said the magic phrase 'space-time continuum' and that is the last I remember." Both blonde women laughed at that. Yes, for the simpler warriors in this or any other time period, Sailor Pluto's explanations were less than useless.

The two Venusian princesses were sitting in the deserted palace ballroom eating some apples that Mina had swiped from the palace kitchens. Mina had been uncertain if the fruit was edible, as they had silver skins. However, she had run into her past self and the equally bubbly heir to the Throne of Aphrodite had assured her that they were perfectly safe. All fruit grown on the Moon had silver skins for some reason.

"So… What is your time like?" Minako asked after the two young women had sat admiring the crescent Earth through the crystal roof of the ballroom.

Mina nearly jumped out of her skin at her past self's words. She had been looking around her, remembering her recurring nightmare… memory, really… of the awful battle here that claimed her life. How odd to recall that, here and now, that battle would not take place for another Earth year. "Well, it is a lot different from this time," Mina said at last, "but some things are the same. Serena and Darien tend to get lost in each other's eyes a lot, Amy never stops reading textbooks that make my eyes cross over just thinking about what they're about, Raye never stops shouting at Serena and Lita tends to hit of people a lot." Mina was glad for the opportunity to gossip. It got her mind of her worry for poor little Rini. The girl might be a fungus and a spore sometimes, but she was a kawaii kid really, and if she were permanently maimed or killed, a little bit of Serena would die. Mina would hate that to happen to her big-hearted friend. She immediately launched into a detailed description of a typical Senshi Meeting at the Hikawa Shrine.

Minako was quickly doubled over with laughter. "Oh man! It sounds like they get _worse _as the centuries go by! Please give me hope. At least tell me that Rei stops beating up on Jadeite and publicly admits that she likes him.... Aphrodite's Embrace! What have I said wrong?" Minako was shocked at the way her future self's face had gone icy white when she mentioned Rei's on-off lover and fiancé. 

__

They must _not know_, Mina heard Pluto's words again and wondered if it was a memory or whether the graceful but distant Senshi of Time was actually speaking to her telepathically. "Please don't ask, Mina-chan," she said quietly. "You don't want to know."

That made Minako go pale too. That sounded like very, very bad news to her. However, her future self was right. Knowing too much about what the future held was inherently dangerous, or at least that is what Queen Setsuna was always telling them. "O… okay," she said quietly, her mood dampened by this moment. She fretted for a moment before continuing. "So… how is the Goddess of Love bit going?"

Mina's eyes lit up when she heard that. It was clear that she had this much in common with her past self: Both adored match-making. "Well, having three _very _single friends makes it a never-ending duty," she said, leaning forwards confidentially. "It is making _them_ understand when a guy is perfect for them that is the big strain."

Minako giggled in reply. "Yeah, I remember when Makoto met Nephrite. She nearly ruined the moment by saying that he reminded her of her first boyfriend! Well, you know how proud Nephy can be! He nearly stormed off in a huff. I had to seal the door with my powers to force them to keep talking!"

Mina was laughing her head off. "She… she still says that today! In my time, I mean! 'He looks like my old Sempai!'" Mina didn't see her past self's smile twitch when she heard that. "Oddly enough, it is Serena and Darien who are the worst to handle! Those two have had a relationship that has lasted who knows how many lifetimes, and yet they are _always_ fretting that they aren't 'good enough'!"

"Sounds like them," Minako agreed. "Endymion puts up a proud front, but with a father as tough-willed as ol' Ajax, it is no surprise that he has come out a bit uncertain when it comes to what others think of him."

The two continued to gossip about the subtleties of the personalities of their friends for some time. Minako explained to her future self that all Venusians were empaths, capable of detecting and interpreting others' emotions. This was a revelation to Mina, who at last knew why she was always able to tell if someone _really_ liked someone else.

Finally, the conversation turned to their personal lives. "So, what about you?" Minako asked, winking flirtatiously. "What's your score so far?" As a general rule, all unmarried Venusians were highly promiscuous. Their nature made it nearly impossible for them to maintain a monogamous relationship except in the case of a soul bond with a specific partner. 

Mina picked up the implication immediately. "I… I haven't felt that way about a guy yet," she admitted, refusing to meet her past self's eyes as she blushed prettily. "There is one guy who I feel special about, but we haven't gone that far yet…"

Minako frowned, but wasn't too surprised. _I could tell that her blood is diluted with Terran,_ she thought, _and here is the proof. But how did this happen?_ However, the Princess of Venus latched onto something else. "Not even with Kunzite?" she asked mournfully. Minako had not chosen her life-mate yet, but she wanted to believe that the white-haired Terran was the one. The skilled empath picked up on the strange response that her future self had to that name immediately. The emotion was not pleasant. It was… angry and adversarial. She had no good memories associated with the man. 

There was a long pause while Mina looked down, bitterly accusing herself for not shielding her heart from her past self's skilled inspection. Finally Minako spoke. "They are all dead aren't they?" she asked. "Jadeite, Zoicite, Nephrite and… and Kunzite are all dead." Minako's voice caught on that last name. "That is why there is such a core of sadness in End… Darien, even when he is with the Princess."

Mina looked up and caught her past self's eyes. "Please don't ask, Your Highness," she said at last. "It is better that you don't know one way or the other." Minako nodded, her face reflecting her feelings of surprise. "I must have your oath," Mina added, her usually good-natured face suddenly deadly serious. Her blue eyes were glowing as she summoned her power to support her plea. "Your oath as the Commander of the Inner Senshi and as a Princess of the Blood. Swear that you will not make any enquiries or even search my friends' feelings for clues. You cannot… you _must_ not know."

"Golden Goddess! Okay, I swear!" Minako said in a surprised and intimidated tone of voice, raising her right hand in affirmation.

Mina drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she had returned to normal. She grinned at her past self. "Let's just say that all of our friends have someone special… even though in Raye's case he is a source of continual aggravation. All thanks to yours truly."

"That's good to know," Minako replied. However, as long as she would live, she would never lose the sense of dread that this short interview had caused her.

***

Lita Wood was doing the one thing that she always did when her frustrations had reached boiling point. She was _cooking_. Although all of her friends appreciated her culinary skills, few of them realised that she used them to prevent herself from punching holes in walls. Although it was difficult adapting to 10,000-year-old cooking tools, she found a mouth-watering layer cake quickly taking shape before her.

Focusing on this helped her _not_ focus on Jadeite. Seeing him and the other Generals associating so freely with the people of the court of the Silver Millennium gave her a headache. She had to physically restrain her urge to fry all four of them with a Lightning Destruction attack. To think of the pain that Jadeite had caused, and to see him so… _innocent_ _and trusted_ in this time made her blood boil. 

Lita's greatest disappointment regarding Jadeite was that she had not had the chance to kill him herself. By the time she arrived, Serena was already dissolving Jadeite into his component atoms with the Silver Imperium Crystal, her usually kindly face twisted with a fury that would terrify the devil himself. Lita could feel her hands closing into fists. She physically controlled herself to maintain her deft strokes with the icing gun. 

However, her mind turned relentlessly to the time, just an hour ago, when she had seen Nephrite kissing her past self in the corridor. She had just fled blindly, ultimately finding herself in the palace kitchens. She felt… _unclean_ for having seen it. Okay, at the end Nephrite was a good guy, but that didn't take away the fact that he had killed scores, maybe hundreds of people in his career wearing Beryl's colours. Including Princess Makoto herself.

"Hi, I see that you like cooking," said her voice. Lita nearly jumped out of her skin and span to face Princess Makoto of the Jovian Empire, Duchess of Ganymede and heir to the Imperial Throne. The woman who was a near-perfect copy of Lita was standing there in a graceful green dress, cocking her head at her future self in innocent interest. "Why did you learn how to? Much call for it in your time?"

"Well, sure," Lita said. "I've got to eat sometime!" _Baka!_ Lita kicked herself mentally. She had effectively just told her past self that she was not a noble with servants in the future. "I mean," she hurriedly amended, "we don't want to bother the cooks every time we want to have a picnic do we?" Lita sweatdropped, rubbing the back of her neck as she laughed nervously.

Makoto smiled in a _regal_ way. "Don't worry," she said. "I figured that you all lived incognito lives in the future. Your clothes when you de-transformed are those of working folk on Endymion's world. I guess that the Queen sent us into hiding on Earth to protect the Princess from Beryl?"

Lita decided it would be a bad idea to confirm or deny this. "Well, that solves a lot of problems," she said. "In answer to your first question, yes I am a very good cook. I love doing something peaceful and constructive as opposed to frying youma by the dozen with a Supreme Thunder attack or two." Both the Amazonian warrior princesses laughed at that easy comment. "And it is always a good idea to have a cake or two on standby to satisfy the Princess' sweet tooth… Mina's too."

Makoto grinned. "You have become the regular morale officer," she said. "When did I get so good at team psychology?"

"I just like people to be happy," she said, and applied a dollop of icing to the tip of her past self's nose. 

Makoto nearly went cross-eyed trying to see what she had done. She scowled at her past self before she started laughing again. "I'm obviously going to spend too much time around Serenity and Minako over the next few years," she sighed before switching to a dangerous tone of voice to continue. "I ought to demand that you join me in the Honour Circle for this act of disrespect!"

"Hey, anytime you feel ready, 'Lightning Lass'," Lita said with a carnivorous grin, making a curling ribbon of electricity appear over the palm of her raised left hand.

"Cool trick," Makoto said approvingly. She was glad that her future self hadn't got soft for all her _domestic _skills. The Jovians were a race of warriors who had little use for such skills. Until the birth of the Silver Alliance, the Empire was notorious as a nation of pirates and plunderers. Even now, 10,000 years later, Jovian society looked down upon women who had too much in the way of deportment and home-making skills. Knowing that her future self could cook so well had worried Makoto, but no more. "So, how are mom and dad doing in your far future? Still chafing at the Queen's refusal to invade Earth to find Beryl?" To Makoto's utter surprise, her future self suddenly burst into tears.

***

"Okay, accuracy test," Jadeite said to the two versions of Sailor Mars standing either side of him. "The targets are set at 50 metres. Both of you give me your best shot!"

"Fire Soul!" The past version of Sailor Mars threw a fireball at her designated target.

"Mars Flame… _Sniper_!" Princess Rei's mouth dropped open when her future self summoned the legendary Crimson Longbow out of her subspace pocket and fired a blazing arrow at the practice target. The focussed bolt of infrared radiation punched right through the bulls-eye of the steel target and blew a three-foot-wide crater in the earth bank behind the target buttes.

"Where in the name of the Red God did you find that?" Rei asked, a desperate edge to her voice as she gazed at the talisman of Sailor Mars' power in her future self's hands.

Raye blushed, suddenly remembering that the Crimson Longbow had been lost for almost 20,000 years when she suddenly acquired it while fighting the denizens of the Dead Moon Circus. _I'm letting slip bits of future history all over_, she thought unhappily. However, she would be _damned_ if she would deliberately under-perform for any reason. After thinking desperately for a few seconds, Raye came up with a reply that she hoped would mollify her past self. "We've all received our talismans by my time," she said. "You will understand if I don't tell you the details."

Jadeite nodded his understanding. Rei, on the other hand, seemed a little disappointed that her future self had not pointed her in the right direction. Her eyes were shining with a slightly unhealthy light. "I can't wait," she said. "I really would love to have an ability that could cut through the ranks of my enemies the way the legends say the Crimson Longbow can!"

Raye looked at her past self thoughtfully. "Take it from a professional: Being in fight after fight is not fun," she said quietly. "I would be a happier woman if I never had to fight again."

Rei looked at Raye as if the younger woman had grown a second head and announced that she was a denizen of the Dark Kingdom. "Oh come on!" she protested. "You can't mean that! You are dozens of times stronger and have been present for some great battles! You should be proud!"

"I have fought in lots of _large _battles," Raye replied, emphasising that she didn't think that any battle was 'great'. "However, the cost, to myself and my friends, is too high." Unconsciously, she turned slightly, looking at the palace wing where Amy and the past Senshi Mercury were trying to save Rini. "This was bound to happen eventually," she continued quietly. "I guess that this is a just punishment for my forgetting what I should really care about."

"She will live," Rei said firmly. "Ami is the best healer that I've ever met. If anyone can help the little princess, it is her."

Raye nodded slightly. "I really have never been comfortable in the role as a fighter," she said. Her past self shot her another strange look. Raye smiled and looked over to her. _No harm mentioning it_, she decided. "I am a novice priestess of the Sacred Fire," she explained. "It is a peaceful role, and one that I prefer."

"Maybe that is why you weren't able to protect the little princess," Rei suggested with a little scorn in her tone. She was _proud_ of being one of the Royal Senshi, and the thought of becoming a priest almost made her laugh.

"Or maybe it was my _warrior instincts_ that made me forget that I was a protector first and foremost," Raye spat in reply. Rei's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Okay, peace you two," Jadeite said, stepping in between the two versions of Sailor Mars, his hands raised in a calming gesture. "As you are both the same person, you can't kill one another." Rei visibly forced herself to relax. Jadeite turned to Raye and put a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe you should rest," he said. "I know how I would feel if Endymion was hurt, so I know that you feel bad…" To his surprise, he saw that Raye was looking at his hand as if it were a poisonous animal of some kind.

"Please don't touch me," Raye said in a firm, dangerous tone. "Do not presume that because you have a relationship with my past self it gives you licence to violate the sanctity of my body, Colonel." 

Jadeite frowned slightly and backed off, more concerned than anything else. "Very well, I will respect that," he said.

"What is wrong with you?" Rei said. "He is my… _our_ soul-mate!"

"Not anymore," Raye said without hesitation. There was no harm in letting them know that. She could see that Jadeite had guessed this already.

"Your loss," Rei said in a smug tone, before pulling her fiancé's face down for a kiss. Raye turned and walked off back towards the palace, before she did something _really _stupid. Somehow, this was something like seeing your own reflection, with all the bad qualities showing up in stark clarity.

***

"Are you feeling better now, kid?" Makoto asked Lita in a clumsy attempt at comfort. Her future self had just cried herself out on her shoulder and she still wasn't sure why. "What happened to our parents?" she asked. "Are they dead?" The look of tragedy on her future self's face was all the confirmation that she needed. "Gods…" Makoto closed her eyes for a moment. _How odd_, she thought, _I'm in mourning for someone who is still alive_.

"Please don't tell Serena that I broke down like this," Lita said hurriedly. "She would be furious if she knew that I had let slip a bit of future history." _Fortunately_, she added silently, _I managed to prevent Makoto from realising that _my_ dead parents are not _her_ dead parents. I don't think the timeline could handle that!_

"Of course," Makoto said. "We Sailor Jupiters must stick together you know!" Lita laughed slightly as Makoto released her from her hug and patted her on the shoulder in a reassuring way. The two young women spent a few moments trying to collect their thoughts. "Um… Can I try that cake?" Makoto asked at last. "It looks too good to resist!"

Lita grinned, glad to get her mind off of death and time paradoxes. "Sure," she said. "I didn't make this thing for the exercise, you know!"

Nephrite walked into the kitchen a few moments later to find two Jovian Princesses pigging out on an iced layer cake. The only way he could tell _his_ princess was the fact that her hair was a lighter shade, almost pink, while the future version had fawn brown hair and was wearing distinctive rose-shaped earrings. "So this is where you ran off to!" he announced in a superior tone of voice. "You abandoned me for a night of gastronomic pleasure!"

"No, I just wanted to try her… _my_… cake," Makoto said.

The spray of cake crumbs when Makoto spoke made Lita wince. _Blasphemy!_ her mind wailed at the tragic loss.

Nephrite laughed and walked in. "Whatever," he said. "Er… can I…?" Lita gestured her consent. She had a bad moment when he picked up the knife to cut himself a slice, but that passed quickly enough. However, the flashback of the _other_ Nephrite driving his sword through her heart on that last awful day still flashed on Lita's retinas for a few seconds before she could focus again on the here-and-now.

Nephrite's eyes went up in appreciation at the taste of Lita's cake. "Wonderful!" he said. "If this is the quality of Jovian cooking, I am going to _have_ to attend more of the banquets at the embassy, love!"

Makoto waved her hand in disagreement. "Oh no, Nephy, this is something that she has… I _will_ pick up on Earth in a few years' time," she announced easily. Nephrite's eyebrows went up. "Yeah, you heard me right, it looks like that we are going to spend a _lot_ more time together in the near future."

Nephrite grinned and turned to a fretting Lita. "In that case I must thank you on _two_ counts, Lady Lita," he said. "For a fine treat and for the knowledge that my love and I will be together more often in the future!" Nephrite took Lita's hand and kissed it in a courtly way.

"Hey, hands off!" Makoto snapped, punching her lover lightly on the shoulder. "What about me?"

"She _is_ you," Nephrite reminded her. "So I'm not cheating on you, just giving you a little love in the future!"

"Yeah, but you are cuckolding the you in the future," Makoto replied with devastating logic. "He has first claim on Lita here!"

Lita's eyebrows shot up in disbelief at this conversation. She could see that Nephrite was having a difficult time following that line of reasoning. "Yes," he said at last. He turned back to Lita, laughter in his eyes. "You will convince me to forgive me?" he asked. Lita laughed and nodded. She would if she could. This time travel thing was confusing, but not as it could be… unfortunately for Nephrite.

"Yeah, he would understand, I guess," Lita said uncertainly. She shook her head, suddenly massively uncomfortable with the whole situation. "Look, I've got to go." With that, she turned and fled.

"What's eating her?" Nephrite asked, and then laughed gently as he realised that this was a pun, of sorts.

Makoto didn't join in with the laughter. There had been something in the eyes of her future self, something bad that appeared as soon as she and Nephrite had started talking about his future self. She didn't react right to Nephrite's flirting and she didn't seem comfortable around him. This was a mystery, and Makoto didn't like mysteries.

***

Amy Anderson looked around the healer's examination chamber in some amazement as her past self directed several orderlies to settle Rini's comatose form on the main examination bed. Immediately, a holographic schematic of the little girl's body appeared over the bed, along with several displays that showed the girl's vital signs.

Amy frowned as she considered the displays. Although some used scales and measurement units that she was only familiar with through working with the computer in Central Control, she was able to interpret them fairly accurately. She drew on her high school-level medical knowledge as well as the extras she had taught herself through extra credit study and her desire to be more able to help her sister Senshi. From that she could tell that Rini was deeply comatose and that her body's reserves of strength were failing rapidly. Already, the girl's liver and kidneys were close to catastrophic malfunctions.

"All right, get her on external bio support," Princess Ami, this era's Senshi Mercury, instructed her orderlies. She looked up at the schematic and frowned. "That thing is more akin to a parasite than a poison. It is growing across the little princess' organs and taking the nutrients that they need to continue to function. We will have to start feeding her high-density nutrients intravenously." The orderlies scattered to start the treatments that the Princess of Mercury had commanded. The older woman turned to her future incarnation. "Amy, could you download your scans into my system, please?"

Amy nodded, pulling out her TACS handset and selecting the required function. A half-second later the results of Amy's scans appeared on the hologram along with a yellow asterisk that marked the point where Harbinger's spear had penetrated the girl's body.

"Okay, let's start brainstorming," Ami told her future self. "We already know that the Silver Imperium Crystal, the most powerful healing magic in creation, doesn't stop this canker. So, based on that and the data we have collected what are we dealing with?" Amy frowned and considered the question.

It only took the two super-brains a few minutes to solve this first problem. "It isn't a magical weapon at all," Ami concluded.

Amy nodded. "It is a parasitic life-form," she agreed. "Something native to the Negaverse, probably. I've never seen these readings before. Could it be a _silicon_-based life-form?"

Ami shook her had. "I don't know," she said. "In 10,000 years, the Silver Alliance hasn't encountered one silicon-based life-form. A few of our top scholars suggest that they don't exist, despite their theoretical plausibility."

"That may be true of our universe," Amy replied in her precise fashion. "However, we must not forget that the Negaverse is a separate space-time continuum to ours. We must expect that the laws of nature, including those governing biology, must differ from those in our own continuum." Amy cocked her head and glared angrily at the red stain spreading relentlessly through the schematic of poor Rini's body. "What is it feeding on?" she asked. Ami looked at her in puzzlement. "Silicon- and carbon-based biologies are not chemically compatible," she explained. "The Nightshade Crystal ought not to have a food source to allow it to grow in this manner within Rini's body."

Ami frowned. "Yes, we must treat this like any other medical pathogen. We already know the vector: The weapon used by your enemy. Now we must understand what the creature wants and how it works. When we understand its' biology, we can better understand how to first limit its' spread, and then how to remove the infection entirely."

Amy considered the schematic as her past self used a free-floating LCD control to order several high-resolution scans, both physical and magical. "Until we are able to provide a holistic cure we should consider cruder methods to limit the growth of the organism within Rini's body," Amy said. "I recommend surgical intervention to remove the lighter outer reaches of the growth."

There was a long silence in the examination chamber. "I am sorry, what are you suggesting?" Ami's voice was polite as always, but Amy could sense a hostile undertone to her question. Amy was puzzled, but she explained what she was proposing in more detail. Her past self was horrified. "You want me to cut the little princess open like a food animal?" the woman asked in a horrified tone of voice. "No! Absolutely not! That is a barbaric practice that we of the Silver Alliance outlawed _millennia _ago!"

"It is a basic, if radical, aspect of medicine!" Amy argued. "How else would you remove a malignant growth or a malfunctioning organ?"

"We use magical means to repair damage or extract a malignancy, if we are not able to destroy it _in situ_ through other magical means," Ami told her future self. "The crude methods that you are espousing are, thankfully, something from the history books."

Amy bristled slightly. She didn't like the way that her past self was talking to her. Okay, so Amy wasn't a licensed doctor yet, and she only had a fraction of her past self's knowledge, but she didn't like the incredibly _smug_ way that Ami viewed the achievements of her art. No physician knew all the answers. Thinking that you did was dangerous. Furthermore, you must never, _ever_ rule out any therapeutic method that may benefit your patient. Ami's objections bordered on being a _religious prejudice_!

"Now, if you are ready," Ami was saying, either unaware or simply uncaring for her future self's simmering anger, "we are ready to proceed to the next phase. I am going to use a basic teleportation spell to remove a fragment of the pathogen from the patient's body. We will then use that sample to determine its' nutritional requirements and its' environmental needs. Either of these may suggest a means to destroy the entire infection." 

There was a long pause and Amy found that she was fighting the urge to fidget. "What is wrong?" she asked at last.

Ami looked at her future self, uncertainty filling her expression. "I asked for a magical molecular-resolution scan," she said, "it is the primary requirement for a therapeutic teleport spell. However, the scanning device is not working properly." 

While Ami turned to check the magical sensing device that had just slid over Rini's body like a CAT scanner, Amy decided to make an examination of her own. She pulled out her Crystal Henshin Wand and transformed into Super Sailor Mercury, then she called her Caduceus Wand from her subspace pocket. "Mercury Soul Light," she said quietly as she held the wand over Rini. She watched as the spell revealed Rini's aura. To her surprise, there was a dark area over the spreading infection. _Wait a minute, even if the Nightshade Crystal was completely magically inert, it couldn't hide Rini's aura. Okay, step back. If I can't sense her aura in that area, that must be because the Nightshade Crystal's aura is more powerful. Then why can't I sense it instead? Oh dear…!_ Amy looked over at her past incarnation/colleague worriedly. "The damninable thing has a powerful natural magical shielding!" she announced. "I doubt that any conventional magical means will be of any use against it. That might prevent your teleport spell from working properly!"

Ami looked shocked, but recovered quickly. "That is unexpected, but perhaps it ought not to have been," she said quietly. "It would explain why the Silver Crystal is only partially effective against it." There was a long pause before Ami was able to meet her future self's worried gaze. "Tell me, Sailor Mercury. Have you any experience with surgical interventions?" Amy's eyes widened in shock. "This new datum implies that we may be forced to _physically_ extract the sample," Ami continued, "something that no healer since legendary times has attempted on a live patient."

Amy was horrified. She had _learnt _of surgical methods, of course. She had read all the textbooks, including the exhaustive _Grey's Anatomy_, the definitive guide to the construction of the human body. However, she was a total novice to surgery and would never even _dream_ of cutting Rini open without a skilled surgeon as back up. "I… No. No I have no experience."

Ami looked at her future self in horror. "Then we are both about to get that experience," she said quietly, trying to stay calm. "I will need all the knowledge that you have of the methodology involved in this treatment method. Firstly, how do we maintain antisepsis during the time the body cavity is open to the air?"

Some time later, a trembling Amy Anderson and Ami, Princess of Mercury, were standing in a small clean room, removing their blood-splattered scrubs. In the adjoining room an ad-hoc operating theatre, one of Ami's novice healers was finishing the task of regenerating the flesh of Rini's chest and abdomen. "That was… a nightmare," Ami said. "Such things are not meant to see the light of day."

Amy shook her head. "It is a regrettable necessity in my time," she said. "It is to your credit that you were able to adapt and accept that this was a necessity. My greatest regret is that we achieved so little."

Ami had closed her eyes and Amy wondered briefly if her past self had fainted or something. Then the older woman opened her eyes and looked at her. "That is not an accurate understanding of the results of our… examination," Ami said at last. "We know far more about our foe now than we did before. Perhaps we know enough to begin a course of treatment."

Amy nodded, not in agreement but in a desperate desire to continue to feel hope.

***

Queen Serenity looked around the table in the conference room worriedly. While the two incarnations of Prince Endymion were their usual somewhat insular selves, she was very concerned at the way the two eras' Senshi were interacting, or rather _not_ interacting. Venus was lost in thought. Mars couldn't keep a sneer of scorn off of her face every time she looked at her future self. Jupiter looked very worried. Similarly, Raye, Mina and Lita were standing in a huddle, clearly not even attempting to interact with their past selves.

Serenity sighed. Perhaps she should have expected this. They were two groups of the same people from very different times. It was inevitable that they would not be entirely at ease with each other. However, the barely controlled hostility between Mars and her future self was a real cause for concern.

At that moment, Endymion and Darien looked up and both looked rather surprised. Serenity and Serena walked in hand-in-hand. Sometime since she left her assigned quarters, Serena had changed into a dress more suited to the heir of the Moon Kingdom. By chance, or more likely by the two girls' design, it was almost identical to the gown that Serenity was wearing. The only way to tell the two apart was Serena's hair, which was a darker shade of blonde, and her Eternal Brooch of the bodice of the gown. The two princesses were hand-in-hand and were giggling girlishly about something.

"Serenity?" Endymion asked.

"Usako?" Darien asked, sounding even more dazed than his past self did.

The two princesses broke apart and glided over to their respective prince and gave him a peck on the cheek. Queen Serenity looked at the two versions of the Prince of the Earth and managed to hide an impish smile. Darien and Endymion both looked like they were getting a headache. 

She sobered as she remembered why they were here. "Everyone, thank you for coming so promptly," she said in her clear, calm voice. "Sailor Mercury and Senshi Mercury have completed their initial work on my granddaughter and they wish to inform us all of the results." The queen caught the way that Serena grabbed Darien's hand for reassurance. She wasn't at all surprised to see Serenity reach for Endymion in the same way.

The two Sailors Mercury entered the room. Princess Ami had a LCD display pad, while Amy was sorting through several pads that contained various texts on the theoretical nature of silicon-based life. With her usual respect, Amy let her older past self give their report. "We have completed our initial examination of Princess Rini," she announced. "Firstly, we can confirm that the Nightshade Crystal is not a poison or a curse. It is a silicon-based organism, apparently native to the Negaverse. It is a parasitic creature that is slowly consuming the princess' body as it grows."

"Then remove it," Princess Serenity grated. "You _can_ do that, can't you Ami-chan?" 

Ami looked at her princess sadly. "No," she said. There was a scattering of gasps around the table. The queen saw Serena slowly collapse forwards, her eyes pressed shut, her expression one of utter agony. Darien placed a gentle hand on her back and whispered reassuring words into her ear.

"The creature generates a high-power magical shield that prevents us from removing the growth through normal means," Ami continued. "At the suggestion of my colleague," she nodded at Amy, "we then attempted a direct _physical_ intervention. However, we found that the parasite had bonded itself on a molecular level to the princess' vital organs. It is impossible to physically remove it without instantly causing fatal damage to those organs."

"So you are saying that it is hopeless?" Raye asked, springing to her feet. "You are just going to give up and let Rini die?"

"Of course not," Ami replied, somehow managing to pour infinite scorn into her level, expressionless tone of voice. "By continually using high-power curative spells and nutrient supplements, we have been able to completely halt the growth of the infestation and stabilise the patient's condition. However, we are unable to safely remove the infestation. Until we do the patient's quality of life is somewhat… questionable. It is not even certain that she will recover from her coma."

"Is there any hope?" Darien asked, his voice harsh.

"Possibly," Amy said. "However, we are going to need more information. As my colleague said, the Nightshade Crystal is a living creature. As such, it requires nutrients and certain environmental conditions to survive. When we have determined what those requirements are, we will use them as weapons against it, either starving it to death, or creating an environment in Rini's body that will kill the creature and leave her unharmed." Amy caught Darien's eye. "We won't let her die, Darien. I swear it."

"Can you do this, Senshi Mercury?" Queen Serenity asked.

"Possibly," was as far as Ami would commit herself. "However, we will require data and resources that we currently do not have to hand."

"Then get them," the queen commanded in an uncharacteristically harsh tone. "Go anywhere, within the Alliance or without. Co-opt any experts you require. Just… just save my granddaughter."

"It will be as you command, my Queen," Ami said, bowing deeply. Despite her agreement, she was at a loss as to what they should do.

__

To be continued…


	4. Chapter 3  The Ultimate Senshi

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Time & Unforeseen Circumstance

A Sailor Moon fanfiction by BenRG

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Legal Disclaimer

Naoko Takeuchi created all the characters and the story of Sailor Moon. TOEI Animation produced the original animé 'Pretty Girl Soldier Sailormoon', while DiC Entertainment produced the English Language adaptation of the animé.

This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the Worldwide Web. The author intends no breach of any copyright or trademark property.

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Author's Notes

This is in response to a thought that I had one night: Exactly how alike is the current generation of Senshi to their equivalents in the Silver Millennium? Would they get along with each other if they met? On the other hand, would they be either too similar or too different for them to tolerate their other selves? I decided to find out by putting the Inner Senshi into a position where they had no choice but to seek out the help of their previous selves. 

I know that the underlying idea is similar to that used in another fan story called _The Heart Remembers_ by Meshala. I'm not stealing your story, because you will soon see that the detail of the story is quite different.

Continuity:The Inner Senshi are all 18; Tuxedo Mask is 23; Rini and Heather are both 12. Queen Serenity is about 500 years old; The Silver Senshi are all between 20 and 25; Princess Serenity is 20; Prince Endymion is 25; Sailor Pluto is a walking time paradox and you can't pin an age on her.

Events take place (in our time) two years after the defeat of Chaos and the healing of Sailor Galaxia.

Events take place (in the Silver Millennium) a year before Beryl conquers Earth and attacks the Moon. 

****

Censor: PG

Chapter 3 – The Ultimate Senshi

__

The Palace Gardens  
The Silver Palace, Mare Serenitas, The Moon

Circa 8000 BC

Princess Ami of Mercury had finally decided to take a break from her laboratory. Her queen's command seemed an impossible one. There was no way to determine how to destroy the infestation of Nightshade Crystal inside little Princess Rini without removing some of the infestation from the girl's body. However, there was no way of doing so without killing her.

__

There is something that I'm missing, the Mercurian noblewoman thought angrily, _something obvious…_ She had left her future self, Amy Anderson, still pouring over the records in the palace's library computer. The girl was sure that the answer lay in the thousands of years of medical case histories stored in the huge memory banks. Ami wasn't so sure. This weapon had the feel of something new to her. She had the feeling that no one, either in the Silver Millennium, or in the future that their counterparts had come from, had ever seen something like this before. Ami had learnt to trust her instincts over the years

So, she had decided to take a walk and try to clear her mind. She was certain that in the serene tranquillity of the palace gardens, she could work out the answer to this seemingly intractable problem. 

Suddenly, her communicator began to beep frantically. Ami stiffened instinctively as she heard an animalistic roar of fury and several cries of panic from nearby. She summoned her Henshin Wand and turned towards the disturbance. "Mercury power: _transform_!" she cried out and her powers immediately caught her, transforming her into Sailor Mercury before she ran off to join the fight.

***

Standing in one of the contemplation shelters dotted around the gardens, Princess Makoto of Jupiter was puzzling over her future self's strangely ambiguous reaction to Nephrite. Then, her danger sense began to tingle. A green-black vortex opened up before her eyes and disgorged a frightful creature, half ape and half lizard with a stooped back, long, clawed forelimbs, a horribly fanged mouth and tiny, half-mad glowing red eyes.

The creature stared about it, snorting in a kind of half-crazed way before it idly tore a tree up by the roots and threw it at a statue, demolishing it.

Makoto's mind snapped into 'drive' when she realised that this was a 'youma', one of the monstrous inhabitants of the Negaverse that Beryl had been using to test the Silver Alliance's defences over the past six months. It looked a tough one too. She pulled her communicator out of her gown and pressed the 'All Call' button. "This is Jupiter. Youma in the gardens near the Serenity Fountain!" The Princess of Jupiter pocketed her communicator, summoned her Henshin Wand to her hand and raised it above her head. "Jupiter power… _transform_!" she cried out.

A bolt of lightning struck Makoto and her gown melted into the green-and-white fighting garb of Sailor Jupiter, the Senshi of Life and Lightning. Unlike Venus, Jupiter did not like making speeches to introduce herself. She had her own way of making an introduction. "Jupiter thunderclap… _ZAP_!" she shouted, pointing her outstretched arms at the youma. A golden-white lightning bolt zapped from her arms and struck the creature in the back, making it roar in pain.

The youma, snarling fearsomely, turned to face the green-clad Senshi and lashed out with one of its' pan-shaped clawed hands. The impact smashed Jupiter back through the wooden back wall of the shelter and into the middle of a garden where a few young people were sitting around relaxing. They all looked up in shock as one of the Queen's Senshi skidded to a halt at their feet. More angry than hurt, Makoto looked up at them. "Don't just stand there," she hissed. "Fly, you fools!"

At that moment, the Youma jumped over the partially demolished shelter and dropped down in front of Jupiter, hissing and spluttering in blood-crazed fury. The bystanders screamed (including the men) and turned to flee. The monster looked up and pointed its' clawed hands at them. Black fire began to crawl over its' claws as a globe of what seemed to be black lightning formed in between its' pan-shaped hands. Jupiter didn't know what that dark magic would do, and she didn't care to find out. She launched another Thunderclap Zap attack. The creature snarled and looked at its' small tormentor with mad myopic red eyes and fired it's attack at the Senshi instead. 

Makoto was barely able to roll aside before the black lightning blew a twelve-foot crater in the turf. She flipped to her feet and attacked again. Once again, all she did was make the thing mad at her. The creature charged, lashing out with its' foot-long claws. Jupiter dodged several sweeps of those razor-sharp weapons, but the youma was freakishly fast and was able to block her punches and chops with its' tough muscular arms. She lashed out with a high kick and made the monster's reptilian head snap back as she connected with its' lower jaw. However, she wasn't expecting the back-sweep from its' right arm, which slashed open three agonising lacerations on the inside of her left lower leg. 

Jupiter fell to her knees with a cry of pain and surprise, instinctively clutching at her injury. She looked up just in time to see the monster lunging forward, ready to impale her through the chest with those nightmarish claws. "Jupiter Thunder Wall!" she cried out, terror leaking into her voice as she raised her hands. The bubble of electrostatic energy that appeared around her absorbed the attack, but the kinetic force of the youma's charge was enough to knock the brunette Senshi a dozen yards across the ground.

Stunned, Makoto could only lie there as the youma summoned another globe of black lightning between its' hands. Suddenly, a familiar voice cried out: "Mercury Bubbles… _BLAST_!" and the youma disappeared in a fog bank that suddenly appeared from nowhere. The youma moaned in a frustrated, disoriented way, unable to see its' prey.

Jupiter blew out a deep, relieved breath when she saw Sailor Mercury, the Senshi of Wisdom and Ice, standing at the entrance to the garden. "Are you okay, Jupiter?" Mercury asked, her gentle, precise voice tinged with worry. The blue-clad Senshi ran over to her friend and helped her to get up. 

Favouring her wounded leg, Jupiter staggered to her feet. "I'll live," Jupiter said, waving reassuringly. "Let's finish this." 

Mercury nodded and raised her hands. "Shine Aqua…"

Jupiter raised her arms too. "Sparkling Wide…."

"ILLUSION!"

"PRESSURE!" The two high-power attacks slammed into the fog bank and interacted, creating a massive explosion. "Ha! That did it!" Makoto said with a vicious grin.

Ami looked up and her mouth dropped open. The Youma had jumped fifty feet into the air and was dropping right towards them. "Mako!" she shouted. "Run!"

The Youma landed between the two startled Senshi and lashed out, knocking them both off of their feet and opening bleeding cuts across their chests. Jupiter tried to crawl clear, but Mercury was too badly stunned to do anything but lie there as the youma loomed over her and raised its' claws to deliver the deathblow.

At that moment, a discus seemingly made of blue-white light struck the youma right in the centre of its' chest, knocking it from its' feet. "Hold it right there, ugly," shouted a familiar voice.

***

Serena had been sitting at Rini's bedside, holding her future daughter's hand, trying to lend her strength to fight the sickness eating away at her when her communicator began to beep at her. She heard Princess Makoto's call and then, through the window of the sickroom, she heard the unmistakable sound of one of Sailor Jupiter's attacks.

Years of bitter experience took over. Without hesitation, Serena stood up and touched her brooch with both hands. "Moon Eternal Power! _Make up_!" she cried and transformed. Serena threw open the window and leapt into the air over the palace. She landed on top of a tower near the entrance to the gardens and looked around, trying to find the battle. _Makoto said it was near the Serenity Fountain_, Serena thought. The memories of 10,000 years ago filled her mind. Yes, she remembered the fountain, built to commemorate her great-great-grandmother, the first Queen Serenity. She looked in the appropriate direction and saw the unmistakable dome-shaped white cloud of Sailor Mercury's Bubbles Blast attack. 

Serena leapt forwards again as she saw the Youma jump clear of the fog. The young woman immediately spread her wings, the visible manifestation of the power of flight that she gained when she received her Eternal power-up. She glided across the remaining distance and landed on top of a contemplation shelter just in time to see the youma knock the past forms of Mercury and Jupiter from their feet. She immediately launched her Moon Tiara and, much to her surprise, it was enough to knock the monster from its' feet. 

***

Ami looked up to see a familiar shape standing on a nearby shelter. It was a short blonde woman whose long hair was up in the Royal style. _Princess…? No, that is the Serenity from the future_, she realised as she noted the white fuku with blue skirt, blue neckerchief and red bow. _It is Sailor Moon!_

"Princess! Get out of here!" Jupiter shouted as she leapt back to her feet. "Don't risk yourself!"

Sailor Moon didn't seem to hear the Senshi of Life and Lightning. She calmly replaced her tiara and addressed the snarling youma. "How dare you disturb this place of peace and beauty?" she declared. "I am the Champion of Love and Justice, a pretty girl soldier in a sailor suit, Sailor Moon! In the name of the Moon, I shall punish you!"

The youma screamed in fury and lashed out with its' black lightning. Sailor Moon was already airborne, jumping clear of the shelter moments before the attack blew it to splinters. She somersaulted through the air, loosing her tiara again, the impact of the magically charged projectile making the youma stagger. Sailor Moon caught her returning weapon as she landed and launched it again.

This time the youma was ready. It raised a hand and concentrated its' shielding there. The Moon Tiara struck home, but bounced off the reinforced shielding causing no damage. Sailor Moon frowned and suddenly had a plan. _If it can concentrate its' shielding in one place, maybe the rest of its' shields will be weakened… _How odd that Mercury hadn't already figured out this creature's weakness.

Mistaking Sailor Moon's pause for fear, the youma decided to press its' advantage. Snarling maniacally in triumph, the creature charged, leading with its' claws. Sailor Moon dodged several sweeping slash-attacks before giving the monster a Sailor Kick on the jaw. The creature tried the same trick it used on Jupiter, but Sailor Moon was no longer there, she had continued the motion of the kick to back-flip through the air and land several feet away from the monster. 

The youma charged forward again, but Sailor Moon ducked under the clumsy swipe from its' left hand. As she came upright, she slashed her Soul Blade along the outside of the monster's arm, making it roar in pain. The creature, reacting instinctively to the pain, delivered a backhanded slap with its' wounded arm that sent the Senshi of Love and Justice sprawling just as she was about to drive her soul blade through its' back. "Ow! Nuts!" Sailor Moon wailed as she fell to the ground. 

With a roar the youma turned to attack the stunned young woman. The other two Senshi recovered from their shock at seeing the future version of their princess fighting so effectively. She was in danger, and protecting the Princess, no matter _when_ she was from, was a Senshi's job. "Let's cover her!" Jupiter hissed. "Jupiter thunderclap zap!"

"Mercury ice bolt!" A blue-white star of elemental ice energy shot from Mercury's hand as Jupiter generated another thunderbolt. The combined impact made the monster stagger and it turned back to the other two Senshi, roaring in fury. It decided to remove the gnats before handling the far more dangerous enemy dressed in red, white and blue.

The distraction was enough for Sailor Moon to recover from the youma's unexpected attack. She flipped to her feet and pulled the Moon Tiara from her brow. "Hey! This isn't over yet, gruesome!" she hollered. 

The monster looked around at Sailor Moon just in time to see her loose her tiara. The monster span to face the Senshi of Love and Justice and focussed its' shielding in its' outstretched hand again as the weapon zipped toward it. Much to everyone's shock, the tiara shot right past the monster at a comfortable distance. "How could she miss with a magical weapon?" Mercury blurted. The monster chuckled, a booming demonic laugh, and advanced on the seemingly unarmed Moon Princess. Much to the surprise of the other two Senshi, the blonde girl was smiling in a confident way.

Sailor Moon raised her right hand. "Moonbeam… _blast_!" she cried out as a sphere of blue-white light appeared in the palm of her hand. A blue-white energy beam shot out from the light and struck the youma. The creature had just enough time to raise it's hands again to boost its' shields. Even with this measure, the attack pushed it back six feet, the talons on its' feet digging deep furrows in the turf. The youma howled in pain and fury as the lunar elemental energy began to burn through its' magical shields.

At that moment, the Moon Tiara, which had just completed a looping turn, guided by its' mistress' will, returned and struck the youma in the small of its' back. The monster had focussed all its' shielding on its' front quarter, leaving its' back undefended. There was a blue-white crescent-shaped flash of light and the youma screamed in unholy agony. Blue-white fire crackled across the contours of its' body, turning yellow-green scaly flesh into grey, lifeless dust. 

The grey statue that had once been a youma stood in the middle of the small garden area for a few moments before a breath of wind scattered its' substance to the four corners of the Moon.

There was a brief pause as Sailor Moon casually resettled her tiara on her forehead. "Moon-dusted," she said smugly. "That was an easy one, ne minna?"

Jupiter gasped in horror. "You call that _easy_?" she blurted. "Highness, you could have been _killed_! That was the most powerful monster I've ever faced!"

"That thing?" Sailor Moon asked in puzzlement. "That was the weakest monster that I've faced for years…!" Sailor Moon stopped and covered her mouth as she realised something. "Oh, Kami-sama, I forgot that this was the past!" Sailor Moon laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck as a massive droplet of sweat appeared at the side of her face.

"You mean that the monsters in the future are _stronger_ than that?" Mercury asked, sounding terrified. Sailor Moon shrugged and grinned apologetically.

***

In a dark parallel dimension, a monstrous woman with bright red hair looked at the discussion between the three Senshi through her crystal ball, her face twisted with a furious scowl. She had hoped that the Snakeskin Youma would have lasted a bit longer than that. She had confidently expected that it would even kill, or at least incapacitate, at least one Senshi. However, it had failed, just like all the others. However, the deciding factor that led to this defeat seemed to have been this new Senshi in red, white and blue. 

She pointed at the image of the new Senshi with her staff. "Who is that?" Queen Beryl snapped. Around her in her court, various demons, dark wizards and agents of chaos looked around helplessly and tried not to catch their notoriously short-tempered queen's attention. "Well?" Beryl screeched. The silence dragged on for a few seconds. "Krenlin! Attend me!"

After a few moments, a dark-haired sorcerer with a sharp triangular beard stepped forward. "Yes, oh Dark Queen?" he asked nervously.

"This new Senshi! Who and what is she?" Beryl asked imperiously.

Krenlin looked around, looking for someone to take the blame and found no one. "Er… she identifies herself as 'Sailor Moon, the Senshi of Love and Justice'," he said at last.

Beryl scowled at her most senior advisor dangerously. "I know that, you idiot," she said. "However, the Moon has not had a Senshi for millennia. So, the question remains: _Who is she_?" Krenlin smiled appeasingly and raised his hands in a gesture that he hoped communicated helplessness, ignorance and innocence. Beryl rolled her eyes. "Incompetent imbecile," she sighed in a long-suffering tone. "Don't just stand there! _Find out_!" Krenlin fled, very glad to have escaped with his life. Right now, he had to think of a way to get his Queen her answers before her minimal patience ran out.

Beryl stared around at her court for a few moments. She had something else that she wanted to do… _Ah yes_! Now she remembered. "Vyle," she said, looking at her chief genetic engineer. "You assured me that the Snakeskin Youma could defeat any of the Senshi."

Vyle looked around himself nervously, noticing that suddenly all the people who had been standing near him were now standing somewhere else. "Y… yes, Majesty," he said nervously, wringing his hands in terror. "However the powers of this new Senshi…"

"That is irrelevant!" Beryl screeched, making Vyle jump and close his mouth hurriedly. "Your creation should have been equal to handling a few unexpected powers. Instead, it proved to be a weak, useless failure! _Just like you_!"

Vyle dropped to his knees, his arms outstretched in supplication. "My Queen! Have mercy!" he begged. "I guarantee that my next youma will be ten times as strong! Even this Sailor Moon…"

Vyle's desperate pleas were cut off as he was consumed by a red-purple ball of energy that Beryl had casually projected at him from the palm of her left hand. The whole court watched as the tongue of red flame that had been the sadistic scientist faded from view, taking with it the last echo of his death scream. "That is the price of _failure_!" Beryl screeched. "Sada!" 

An aqua-haired woman, who had been the late, unlamented Vyle's assistant stepped forwards. "Y… yes my Queen?" she stammered, as she dropped to one knee in humility, terrified that the Dark Queen's bloodlust might not yet be sated.

"Sada, you are in charge now," Beryl announced. "Create a monster that nothing can beat, even this 'Sailor Moon.'" Sada bowed to her queen and turned to leave. "And Sada," Beryl added. The young woman looked at her Queen, her eyes filled with fear. Beryl gestured to the pile of dust that had been Vyle. "Sada, do not fail me as did your predecessor."

Sada nodded in a stiff, terrified fashion and fled the court of the Dark Kingdom.

***

The Princesses of Mercury and Jupiter were returning to the palace, accompanied by a future Princess of the Moon, who managed to look a bit embarrassed at the acclaim she was getting. "Her lowest-power attack sent that thing sprawling when it could shrug off my attacks like they didn't exist!" Makoto was repeating to Ami as the shorter girl scanned a de-transformed Serena with her TACS handset. "Just how powerful _are_ you, Sailor Moon?"

"Come on, I'm not _that_ all conquering," Serena said. "I would have had to hit it a lot harder if you two hadn't weakened it!"

Ami shook her head. "We barely touched it, Serena, you know that," she responded calmly. "It was your attacks that made the difference to the outcome of this battle." Ami looked at the screen of her handset and looked at Serena's power generation curve, her eyebrow raised in surprise. "According to this, Serena, your power output is stronger than that of Sailor Uranus. I suspect that your peak power levels are at least 1,000 times greater than those you used today."

"Oh, I know that," Serena demurred. "I could have vaporised that thing right away if I had used my Rainbow Moon Heartache attack, but I wanted to know how powerful it was before I started cutting loose. Besides, there was no need to waste energy on a little thing like that!" 

"There she goes with the 'easy' thing again!" Makoto said, shaking her head. "I don't know how powerful the monsters you usually face are, Serena, but I'm glad that I don't have to face them on a regular basis!" 

"Mako-chan, you are almost as strong as me!" Serena protested. She was frantic. Why were these two acting as if that piddling little youma was something special? The Senshi of the Silver Millennium couldn't be _that_ weak, could they? So far, everything she had seen indicated that they were at the same skill level that her friends achieved by the end of the brief conflict with the Doom Tree Twins, if at a noticeably lower power level. However, Serena had not forgotten that they had only defeated Beryl at the cost of their lives. It was ultimately the presence of Darien, and Serena's discovery that she could focus the power of all the Senshi through the Silver Crystal, that made the victory possible. 

Serena shivered a little, remembering how difficult the first few battles she and her friends had fought had been. Against the full might of Beryl and Metallia, they wouldn't have stood a chance. She shivered again, as she looked around the palace, remembering the ruins that existed in her own time. _They _don't_ stand a chance,_ she realised. _This is why Beryl won so easily…_

At this point, Venus, Mars and Endymion raced out of the doors of the palace in full fighting gear. "What happened?" Venus demanded. "Where is the monster?"

"Ease down, Minako," Makoto said with a smug smile. "We've already mopped up the mess!"

"An easy one?" Mars asked.

"Only to Sailor Moon here," Makoto said, slapping an embarrassed Serena on the back. Noting her friends' confused expression she told the tale of the battle again. "And she calmly reduces this thing to dust, puts her weapon back on her head and acts as if it is _nothing_!" Makoto concluded. The others were very impressed.

"You will have to teach us a few of your tricks, Serena," Venus said with a grin.

Serena looked at the woman who was so like her best friend and managed to stammer out a vague reply without saying yes or no. Now she knew why Pluto detested her position as Guardian of the Time Gate so much. The temptation was so great, and the price of duty so very, very painful.

There was a long pause before Endymion spoke. "So… uh… you killed it?" he asked. Serena nodded. The Prince of Earth was giving her an odd look. "Is my Serenity as strong as you are?" he asked.

"If she were properly trained, I am sure that the Princess could emulate all of Sailor Moon's abilities," Ami replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "They are essentially the same person, after all." Endymion looked a bit nauseous at hearing this and raced off.

"What is eating him?" Venus asked as she de-transformed.

"Offended masculinity," Rei suggested. "He has just realised that he is engaged to a girl who could reduce him to molecular dust with a gesture." The Silver Millennium Inner Senshi laughed at that image, while a surprised Serena looked on.

"Well, it good to know that we can handle anything that comes from the Negaverse," Ami said and then stopped, a look of utter surprise crossing her face.

"Ami? Ami-chan, are you okay?" Minako asked, waving her hand in front of the small blue-haired woman's face.

"I'm an idiot!" Ami said. "I've suspected for years that I was a fool, but I've never had the proof before now! It is so _simple_!"

"_What_?" Rei almost shouted.

"The little princess!" Ami said. "I know now what I've missed!"

"You know a cure for Rini?" Serena asked, hope flaring in her heart.

"A cure? No," Ami replied. "However, I _do_ know where we can find the information that may be the key to finding a cure."

***

Queen Serenity sat on her throne in the Inner Court, feeling again the empty space where her dear, beloved Odysseus once sat at her side. It was at times like this that she felt she needed her dead husband's strength and his calm confidence. More than anything else, she wished that she could be in his arms just one more time. 

She had heard the alarm and had sensed the battle. Then, much to her dismay, she had felt what she initially believed was her daughter joining the struggle. Then she realised that it was Serena, Sailor Moon, who had engaged Beryl's latest unnatural soldier. The surge of power from the young future Senshi was breathtaking and now she was contemplating what this implied.

__

I had long suspected that we have become weak and complacent, she thought as she sat back in her throne with a far-away expression. _Now I have the proof of that. Two of my elite warriors were nearly defeated, but just _one_ of their future incarnations, one who ought not to be as accomplished a warrior as the others, swept the threat aside. _Serenity sighed and began to rub the bridge of her nose in exhaustion. _I begin to fear for the future of the Silver Alliance_, she finally admitted to herself. _If our warriors have fallen so far from their peak condition…_

Serenity frowned and, coming to a decision, she summoned the Silver Imperium Crystal from its' resting place. She stared into the unblinking radiance of the ancient concentration of magic and began to assemble a powerful spell. The Senshi of the Silver Alliance needed time to hone their powers so they were ready for the struggle against the forces of Chaos, time that it seemed they did not have. However, the visitors from the future indicated that there might yet be a way to solve that problem. Of course, it would be a deadly solution for her, but so long as the others had a chance…

"Your Majesty!" one of the guards suddenly declared. "The Princess of Mercury, Ami, and the Princess of Gaia, Serena!" Gaia was a human-inhabited world in the nearest major star system to the solar system. Serenity had decided to claim that the visitors from the future were actually members of the royal family of that distant world, thinking (rightly) that no one would know the Gaian Royal Family if they saw them.

"Yes, Ami, Serena, what can I do for you?" the Queen asked, quickly dismissing the Silver Crystal.

"Majesty, I believe I have discovered the key to curing Princess Rini," Ami said calmly. "However, it will be difficult to acquire the materials we need."

"For 'difficult' read 'practically impossible,'" Serena added, looking a bit worried.

"Nothing is impossible, child," Serenity assured the future form of her daughter. "What is it you require, Senshi Mercury?" she asked. "If it is anything within my power, I will acquire it for you at once."

Ami drew in a deep breath. "We need to get a Nightshade Crystal so I can examine it and find how to neutralise one."

There was a long silent pause in the chamber. "Senshi Mercury, the Nightshade Crystal is native to the Negaverse, or so our guests have told us," the queen said at last.

Serena nodded. "That's right," she said. "So it means that if we are to get one of these things for ourselves, we will have to invade the Negaverse!"

***

"So, how did she take it?" Darien asked. He was sitting with Serena in the public square outside the main gates of the palace. Wearing the clothes of a mid-level noble and with Serena's hair in a French braid rather than her ondangos, the two were nearly unrecognisable to a casual glance.

"Well, she hasn't decided yet," Serena said. "She was shocked of course. I would be too, but Ami's reasoning is good."

Darien nodded and grinned. "As if it would be anything else," he said with a laugh. Serena laughed too. "I'm coming, of course," he continued.

"Darien!" Serena scolded. "We haven't even decided if _anyone_ is going yet! Besides," here, Serena leaned close to her fiancé and continued in a discreet tone of voice, "the Senshi of this time aren't exactly the most powerful of protectors. I need someone more powerful here to protect Rini while the girls and I are out on our field trip in the Negaverse."

"Surely they aren't that bad!" Darien protested.

"Their power level is about the same that we were at during our war with Beryl," Serena said. "They have the same skills that we had when we were fighting Ail and Ann, but their power levels are lower." Darien was shocked. "I think it is because the Silver Alliance has been at peace for so long," Serena continued. "They haven't had the need to hone their powers as we have."

Darien nodded sadly. "I think I know what happened to the Silver Alliance," he said after a while. Serena nodded too. Her face was a mask of tragic sadness, and she accepted her Prince's embrace gladly.

Later on, Serena would complain petulantly that it was typical that the moment she and Darien had got down to some serious loving, that the Negaverse, or whoever the bad guy _du jour_ was, would interrupt. The first hint of trouble the two lovers had was the sudden static in the air that made Serena's hair almost stand on end. Then there was an enormous blue-white flash of light. When everyone could see again, what they saw was an 18-foot-tall insect like a madman's cross between a cockroach and a preying mantis.

"What the…? _Yuck_!" Serena said with a grimace. Both she and Darien could sense the taint of evil in this creature. Despite its' size and outlandish appearance, it was doubtless a youma. 

***

Up inside the tower of one of the palace's outbuildings, Princess Minako stared at the creature in disbelief before drawing her Henshin Wand. "Venus power… _transform_!" she shouted, transforming into the ever-beautiful, ever-courageous and ever-stunning Senshi of Love and Light, Sailor Venus. "Okay, let's do it," she said to herself with a confident grin.

Venus pushed open the window where she was standing and leapt towards the public square, a golden-orange streak against the sky. After hearing of Sailor Moon's victory earlier today, she was pumped up and ready to start kicking Negaverse hide!

***

The monstrous creature lunged towards the fleeing panicking citizens, intending only to cause havoc and attract this place's champions so it could fulfil its' reason to exist: Destroy the Sailor Senshi. The bug-like youma cornered a woman against a tower and was about to bite her in half with its' lethal mouthparts when a single blood-red rose dropped in front of it. The youma looked at the rose in puzzlement for a few seconds before the flower exploded into bright light and made the monster stumble back with a shriek of pain.

When the creature's vision cleared, it was shocked to see a man, standing on the roof of a kiosk, wearing a black formal suit over a white shirt, a top hat and carrying a European longsword. A white domino mask covered the man's eyes, but this didn't disguise his total confidence. "How dare you terrify the innocent of this peaceful world?" the man declared. "For this, I, Tuxedo Mask will not forgive you!"

The bug-youma shrieked and charged Tuxedo Mask, who stood there for a long moment with a mocking smile before he leaped over the charging monster. The bug lashed out with its' sabre-like forelimbs but all its' attacks missed. The creature was so focussed on the Champion of Earth that it didn't notice Sailor Moon jump up on top of the kiosk where Tuxedo Mask had stood seconds before. It didn't notice her at all until she raised both hands, palms raised. She cried out: "Duo Moonbeam… _BLAST_!" and fired off a double beam of lunar elemental energy that sent the creature tumbling across the square.

Sailor Moon watched as the creature leapt to its' feet. _This one is much tougher,_ she decided._ It was barely phased by that attack_!

With a roar, the youma lashed at the air with its' claws, sending dozens of small razor-sharp chitinous blades hurling through the air towards the Champion of Love and Justice. "Sailor Moon! Watch out!" Tuxedo Mask shouted. He need not have bothered. Sailor Moon had already effortlessly leapt over the attack and had launched her Moon Tiara into the air. The magical projectile whirled around the bug-youma, trailing a thread of Moon Moth silk, which quickly bound the creature's upper limbs to its' side.

"Ha! Not so smart now, are we?" Sailor Moon mocked. "Now, the only question is how I get rid of you? Should I use my sceptre or just a giant can of 'Raid'?"

The youma shrieked in fury and spat a black gob of saliva at the future Princess of the Moon. Sailor Moon jumped clear, which was a good thing considering the way the black goo was hissing and eating into the paving at an alarming rate. With an ear-bursting roar, the youma tore off its' restraints by the simple expedient of flinging its' arms out to its' sides. Then the creature lunged forward, lashing out with a foot to trip Sailor Moon over as she back-pedalled and then driving a four-foot-long claw towards her chest.

When the claw hit the ground, the Senshi of the Moon wasn't there. She was twenty yards away in Tuxedo Mask's arms. "Nice catch, Tux," Sailor Moon teased.

The creature turned its' impressive armoured head around, trying to find its' prey. Then it saw them and was about to charge when it was interrupted. "Hey, you! The grotesque one!" The creature turned to see Sailor Venus standing on top of the palace gates. "A creature like you is simply too ugly to be permitted to befoul this world! I am the beautiful Sailor Venus, and in the name of Venus and the Moon, I will destroy you!" Sailor Venus raised a hand. "Venus meteor… _shower_!" she shouted, and launched a stream of golden-orange energy projectiles at the youma. 

The creature staggered back with a howl of pain, raising its' huge forelimbs to protect its' face. With a rebel yell, Sailor Venus somersaulted from the top of the gate, drawing the Crystal Sword, her symbol of office as commander of the Inner Senshi, from its' back-mounted scabbard as she did so. "Crystal Sword blast!" she shouted, loosing an energy bolt at the creature from the blade of her weapon. This attack wasn't as effective. The creature seemed to barely notice the attack, rather it lashed out with its' sabre-like forelimbs again. Venus danced clear, but only barely, and she immediately found herself on the defensive as the long claws and the front pair of legs came at her from seemingly every angle.

"Hey! Ugly!" shouted Sailor Moon. "Duo moonbeam blast!" Another pair of blue-white energy beams struck the creature in the side, making it stagger sideways. A moment later, Tuxedo Mask threw three roses flower-first, at the creature from the other flank. On impact, the roses turned into massive explosions that made the creature stagger the other way. 

"Crescent beam smash!" Venus shouted, firing an orange energy beam at the disoriented creature's head. The creature stepped backwards with a roar. "Yeah! You lose!" Venus shouted, leaping into the air to decapitate the horror with the Crystal Sword. To her utter shock, the creature blocked the cut with one of its' forelimbs and lashed out at her with the other.

Sailor Moon looked on in horror as Sailor Venus went down, blood fountaining from an awful chest wound. "V-chan!" she screamed.

***

Mina was talking to Ami about what they might need for the proposed sojourn to the Negaverse when she suddenly collapsed with a cry of agony. "Mina! What's wrong?" Ami asked in horror.

As Amy rushed over to help her past self, Ami grabbed at the Sailor Venus from the future, who was suddenly writhing in agony, as if she were suffering from a powerful fit. To her _horror_, her hand passed right through Mina's body as if she were nothing but a sophisticated holographic image.

"Mina-chan!" Amy screamed, "hang on! Don't give up on us!" She was weeping in terror as Mina began to fade from view, surrounded by a swarm of sparks of light, like an invasion of fireflies. "She's fading from existence!" Amy cried out. "Something must have happened to this era's Sailor Venus!"

Ami reacted immediately. She pulled out her communicator and pressed the button for Senshi Venus' communicator. "Venus, come in!" she called. "Venus? _Mina-chan_!"

***

"V-chan!" Sailor Moon gasped as she dropped to her knees beside her best friend's past self. She could see the light of life quickly fading from Sailor Venus' eyes. The horrible wound across the other woman's chest, which had exposed the inside of her chest cavity, was simply too large for her to staunch the bleeding in any way.

"I… I'm sorry… princess…" Minako whispered as she felt her life slipping away.

The youma shrieked in triumph and lunged forwards, intending to deal with the distracted Sailor Moon also. 

However, much to its' shock, its' claws were deflected by a heart-shaped energy shield. The shield was generated from a white rod ending with a golden valentine's heart and a silver crescent moon, with a shining blue-white gemstone in between the horns of the crescent, which Sailor Moon was holding in her right hand. 

Before the youma could react to a shielding spell capable of blocking its' attack, Tuxedo Mask suddenly swooped down, severing both of its' sabre-like forearms with a single sweep of the Earth Guardian Sword. The creature raised a secondary pair of arms with clawed humanoid hands, but before it could attack, the Prince of Earth projected a sparkling red-gold sphere of Earth elemental energy from his the palm of his right hand that threw the monster across the square. The Youma collapsed where it fell and was still for a few moments.

As the youma slowly dragged itself to its' feet, Sailor Moon shoved Tuxedo Mask aside and strode towards the creature, her fists clenched at her side. "You hurt my friend, you monster," Sailor Moon cried out in a low, furious tone of voice. "For that I will punish you! Moon…" Serena raised her arms and pointed her fists at the creature. "Heart…" Scores of valentine's heart-shaped blue-white energy projectiles appeared and began to whirl around Serena's forearms. "_SPIRAL_!" The horizontal tornado of energy projectiles flashed outwards and struck the youma in the centre of its' chest. The monster didn't even have time to scream. It didn't so much turn to moon dust as it literally flew apart at the atomic level. There were a few wisps of blue-white plasma and an echo of a cry and then the creature was gone.

"Well done, Sailor Moon," Tuxedo Mask said in a grave tone of voice, only too well aware of the torment that his beloved was feeling.

"V-chan, please be alive," Sailor Moon cried, dropping to her knees beside the horribly wounded Senshi again. Senshi Venus was not breathing and the blood had stopped flowing, a very bad sign. Worse still, Serena could feel her friend's soul beginning to fade away. "_No_! I won't let you die!" She grabbed both of the other woman's hands and concentrated. "Moonlight honeymoon therapy… _kiss_!" she cried out.

[DISCONTINUITY]

Minako blinked. Everywhere there was mist and cold. She was dying, this she knew, but she couldn't understand why her sense of self still existed. Suddenly, she was aware of an intense light from somewhere ahead of her. As she looked on, a _goddess_ flew into sight on white dove's wings. The goddess resembled her princess except that her princess didn't have wings, and rarely went around naked except for the Silver Imperium Crystal blazing forth from in between her breasts. 

__

Princess…? Minako asked.

__

Almost, the goddess replied. _It is time to come back, Minako, daughter of Aurora_. 

__

But… I'm dead… aren't I? Mina protested.

The goddess knelt beside Mina and took her hands into her own. _It is not your time, Minako_, she said. _You have so much to live for. Besides, you cannot die or my best friend will never live._

Minako nodded, although she didn't know what she was agreeing to. _I don't want to die_, she admitted.

__

No one of this kingdom would want that, Minako, the goddess said. _You are too greatly loved by all, including your Princess. And including myself._

As if in a dream, Minako stood and hugged the winged goddess, then allowed her to lead her back into the blazing light from which she had come.

[DISCONTINUITY]

As many times as Darien had seen Serena use Moonlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss, he was still in awe of his love's incredible power. Intense blue-white light had surrounded her and the body of Sailor Venus. Serena's head was tilted back, her eyes wide and sightless and her mouth half-open in exertion. Darien could swear that he could see pure white wings like those of a dove spreading from her back.

Suddenly, the wound on the Silver Millennium Senshi's chest healed up and vanished as if it had never existed. Then Minako opened her eyes and gasped in a breath.

As suddenly as it had begun, it ended. Serena slumped forwards and released Minako's hands. The blue-white aura disappeared and everything seemed normal again. Darien knelt at his soul mate's side, subtly transferring a little strength to her as she recovered from the enormous amount of effort needed to summon a soul back from the next life.

"You… saved me!" Minako gasped as she stood. "How?"

"Just one of many marvellous talents that time has taught me… has taught all of us," Serena said in a shaky tone of voice. Then the palace healers surrounded them all and they were lost to the other's sight.

***

"Damn it!" Beryl screamed. "We were so close to destroying that orange-clad _nuisance_ once and for all!" The Queen of the Dark Kingdom lashed out, vaporising some luckless minion. "Get me Sada _now_!" she shrieked. "And someone tell me: _Who are _'_Sailor Moon_' _and _'_Tuxedo Mask_'?"

***

"I'm just glad that you didn't vanish on us, Mina-chan," Serena said in a relieved tone of voice as she hugged her best friend tightly.

"Yeah, well just don't cut the rescue so close next time, Sere-chan," Mina said with a laugh, which covered over a lot of raw fear. That had been too close. She had felt her existence unravelling for a few seconds there before she opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by palace healers and with a sobbing Amy hugging her as if she dare not ever let go.

Suddenly, with a whisper of silk on stone, Queen Serenity entered the small study where she had asked to meet with the Senshi from the future. "I understand that I have to thank you for saving the commander of my Senshi, daughter," she said with a smile

Serena smiled and shrugged modestly. "I would have done it for anyone," she said quietly.

"I'm sure," the queen replied with a gentle smile. She sat down at a desk at one end of the study. "I'm here to tell you that I have decided to approve the mission to the Negaverse to find a Nightshade Crystal for Senshi Mercury's experiments," she announced. She saw the glee on the six youngsters' faces and smiles.

"Thank you, mother," Serena almost cried. The other future Senshi were almost dancing with joy. "We can leave immediately…"

"Not immediately," Serenity said, raising a hand in an arresting gesture. "We have to wait on Mercury clearing Venus for active duty again."

Serena paused. "Minako is coming with us?" she asked in some surprise.

The queen smiled grimly. "So is Mars, while I would ask that Mina and Raye stay here and help my Senshi guard the palace in the absence of their commander and second-in-command."

Serena looked at her mother and tried to think of a tactful way to say this. "Mother, that is a very generous thing to do," she said. "But it isn't necessary. My Senshi and I have the experience in operating in hostile territory against unpredictable threats that the Senshi of this era do not."

"Besides which, they are weak and would be a liability, right, Serena?" Queen Serenity's sculpted brows raised in a mocking way, making the future Senshi fidget like schoolgirls caught out in some mischief. "I know how you feel about your past selves, my young friends. However, please remember that they have benefited from a structured training regimen and have experience with magic that you do not."

"But for all their experience, they are weak!" Raye exploded. "They'll be a liability!"

"Raye!" Serena was horrified at her friend's tactless insubordination.

To everyone's surprise, the queen just laughed. "There is more to strength than raw power, Raye," she said. "I think that Venus and Mars might yet surprise you, for all you have attained to a higher power level than they." The queen stood to look out of the window of the study. "I have been aware of the discord and mistrust between you and my Senshi," she said. "I do not want either side to feel slighted in who conducts this mission, so I have decided that that we will send two Senshi from either group, and, of course, Serena, my daughter, whose great power may make the difference between success and failure."

Serena opened her mouth to protest again, but her mother cut her off. "This is not a matter for debate, my daughter," she said quietly. 

Serena closed her mouth and looked in her mother's eyes. Seeing certainty she acquiesced. "By your command, my Queen," she said, curtseying before her mother. After a moment's hesitation, the other four Senshi followed suit.

"Do not be resentful, my young friends," the queen said. "You have nothing to prove to me, but my Senshi have much to prove to themselves. I believe that both you and they will benefit from this experience. Besides, there are also other… _strategic_ issues that I believe that this will benefit."

"I trust your judgement, mother," Serena said with a slight smile. In truth, she wasn't looking forward to this, but she was determined to do whatever it took to save Rini.

__

To be continued… 


	5. Chapter 4  Shadows and Possibilities

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Time and Unforeseen Circumstance

A Sailor Moon story by BenRG

****

Legal Disclaimer

Naoko Takeuchi created all the characters and the story of Sailor Moon. TOEI Animation produced the original animé 'Pretty Girl Soldier Sailormoon', while DiC Entertainment produced the English Language adaptation of the animé.

This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the Worldwide Web. The author intends no breach of any copyright or trademark property.

****

Author's Notes

This is in response to a thought that I had one night: Exactly how alike is the current generation of Senshi to their equivalents in the Silver Millennium? Would they get along with each other if they met? On the other hand, would they be either too similar or too different for them to tolerate their other selves? I decided to find out by putting the Inner Senshi into a position where they had no choice but to seek out the help of their previous selves. 

I know that the underlying idea is similar to that used in another fan story called _The Heart Remembers_ by Meshala. I'm not stealing your story, because you will soon see that the detail of the story is quite different.

****

For those only used to the original Japanese names… 

Usagi – Serena

Mamoru – Darien

Ami – Amy

Rei – Raye

Makoto – Lita

Minako – Mina

Chibi-Usa – Rini

Hotaru – Heather

Continuity:The Inner Senshi are all 18; Tuxedo Mask is 23; Rini and Heather are both 12. Queen Serenity is about 500 years old; The Silver Senshi are all between 20 and 25; Princess Serenity is 20; Prince Endymion is 25; Sailor Pluto is a walking time paradox and you can't pin an age on her.

Events take place (in our time) two years after the defeat of Chaos and the healing of Sailor Galaxia.

Events take place (in the Silver Millennium) a year before Beryl conquers Earth and attacks the Moon. 

****

Censor: PG

Chapter 4 – Shadows and Possibilities

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The Queen's Study  
The Silver Palace, Mare Serenitas, the Moon

Circa 8000 BC

After her daughter's future self and her Senshi had left her presence, Queen Serenity sat by the window for a few minutes, looking over the beauty of her kingdom. She sighed deeply. She loved this view and she would do anything to protect her world and her subjects from harm. 

However, the fact that her visitors from the future were evidently reincarnations of her daughter and her daughter's court indicated that something terrible would happen, quite possibly in the very near future. Serenity was no fool. She had been aware that her soldiers, and especially her Senshi, were increasingly struggling to defeat the unnatural monsters that Beryl was sending from her hideout in the Negaverse to cause havoc in the Silver Alliance. The skill and power of the future Senshi seemed to indicate that the problem came down to a lack of practice. Simply put, the magical warriors of the Silver Millennium had to have time to hone their powers and their skills so that they could match and beat Beryl's hordes.

There was the problem. Time had run out. With the increasing pace of attacks, Serenity concluded that there could only be a short period left before Beryl launched her final assault on the Silver Millennium, and maybe even on her homeworld of Earth. While she had no doubt that the Alliance's warriors would fight bravely and resolutely, as matters stood the result of the fight would be decided before it even began.

They needed time, and her visitors from the future had shown how she could find that time for them. It was clear that the far future, although not entirely harmonious, was an excellent training ground for Senshi. The logical answer would be to send her daughter, her love and her Senshi to the future to train, then allow them to return (only seconds later, objectively speaking) to face Beryl with vastly greater powers. 

Senshi Pluto would doubtless be horrified at even the thought of such an expedition, but the queen had power enough to make this happen for herself. With another deep sigh, Serenity summoned the Silver Imperium Crystal. She could do this, she knew, but the power drain would be instantly fatal. However, even if the queen were to die, Princess Serenity would be back within moments to take her late mother's throne. The queen focussed on the crystal's blazing white radiance and concentrated. Her only wish right now was that her little girl would find some way to forgive her for taking away the last years of her youth and thrusting her upon the Imperial throne.

"And just what do you think you are doing, Your Majesty?" asked a serene but angry voice.

Queen Serenity looked up sharply and saw a very familiar face standing in the shadow of a bookcase. It was a tall woman with leaf-green hair and wearing a Senshi Fuku in green and maroon. The woman held a long staff shaped like a key that had a glowing red orb in the heart-shaped head. "Don't try to stop me, Setsuna," Serenity replied.

"You are risking the total destruction of the timeline," Senshi Pluto snapped. "I can not only forbid you from doing this, but Hades has given me the power to prevent you from making the attempt!"

Serenity reined in her irritation at the presumption of the Guardian of Time. She slapped the Silver Imperium Crystal into its' clip on the golden moon-shaped breast-piece of her dress. "The Silver Millennium will fall if I don't do _something_, Setsuna! Is that what you want?"

"How _dare_ you?" Pluto strode over and grabbed her mother's niece by the shoulders. "I have fought for the safety of the Alliance as hard as any of your Senshi!" she hissed, shaking the younger woman for emphasis. "Harder than most! But you _cannot_ alter the future at this stage and in this manner. The consequences are unthinkable! You could create a paradox that might cause the destruction of _everything_."

Serenity shrugged off her cousin's grip and pushed her away slightly. "Don't start on about the timeline and the space-time continuum with me, Pluto," she snapped. "I am the Queen of the Silver Millennium. I have a responsibility to protect over fifty-five _billion_ sentient lives in this star system alone! You are practically ordering me to leave my warriors in a state where they cannot fight Beryl's hordes. I cannot… I _will_ not do such a thing!"

Pluto shook her head in a disgusted manner and walked forward to force her physical presence on her cousin again. "For the sake of all the gods, Selene, stop thinking in such _small_ terms! Look at the matter objectively. How did you discover that your warriors were under-trained and inadequate?"

Serenity looked at the Guardian of Time in puzzlement. "Well… it was obvious that they weren't powerful enough for some time…"

"And how do you know that they could get more powerful with time and practice?" Pluto asked, her dangerous scowl unchanged.

"The future version of my daughter and her Senshi," Serenity said quietly. "Their powers are so much greater…"

"Exactly," Pluto said severely. "Now follow through that thought logically. If you change the future by sending your Senshi to a safe time to train, then the alternate future where Serena came from will cease to exist. If she never existed, then she would never have been in the situation where she has to come back to this time, which means that you would have _never_ known that the Senshi could be more powerful. If you didn't know that then you would never have sent them forward to a safe time. Because of that, Serena and her friends will exist and return to the past, creating the events that led to you trying to send your own Senshi to the future, _ad infinitum_! It is a paradox of the worst kind, Selene. It is my _duty_ to stop such things from happening."

Queen Serenity sat down at her desk, folded her arms before her and let her head rest on them. "So what do you propose that I _should_ do, o wise guardian of time?" her sudden exhaustion adding an extra bite to her sarcasm. "Should I just let my kingdom go to war only half-prepared?"

"You should act as if Serena and her friends never came back in time," Pluto replied gently. "They should not have undertaken such a journey, and I know that they only did so out of utter desperation." The tall Senshi walked over to her queen and began to stroke her hair affectionately. "Do not despair, Selene," she said quietly. "The situation is not hopeless and it never will be. The door that you hoped to use _will_ open in time, and you should not fear to use it when the time comes. Your daughter and her court will attain to their rightful powers, in due time. Indeed, Serena, even now, has not realised a fraction of the powers that are her birthright."

Serenity's head snapped up and she looked at her cousin in surprise. "What do you mean?" she asked sharply.

Pluto laughed. "I am forbidden to tell," she said. "But consider the power that has always existed in our bloodline. I am far more powerful than any Sailor Pluto who has lived before me has been. Consider also that your sister, Imbrium, left to train at the feet of the Supreme Senshi when she was still just a child. Now she protects all creation as Sailor Galaxia, the most powerful Senshi who has lived since legendary times. Remember also that old Sailor Eternity wanted you to train as a Senshi too, but your mother forbade it, as you were to be heir to the throne of the Alliance. That power was passed to your daughter, and the times she that will live through will hone that power to the point where no one, not even her Aunt Imbrium, is her equal."

The queen's face had lit up in amazement. "My baby… my Serenity… she is _Sailor Cosmos_?"

"In some of the possible timelines that I have monitored, yes," Pluto replied, looking pleased that her cousin had worked it out for herself. "But you should not concern yourself about such things. Rather remember that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation. Remember to carry on as if Sailor Moon and her Senshi had never visited this time. When the times comes, and you will know when it comes, then make your grand gesture and act to protect the Silver Millennium… and its' successors in the far future." Sailor Pluto gently kissed her cousin. "Health to you, my queen," she said. "Never despair. As awful as the times coming will be, it is the first step to a future the glory of which will rival the Silver Millennium at its' legendary height."

Serenity stroked her wise cousin's face with a slightly wavering smile and nodded in dismissal. "Health to you, Senshi of Time," she said gently as Sailor Pluto summoned a time portal with a gesture of the Garnet Rod. The green-haired woman stepped through the portal and vanished. Then, the queen of the Silver Millennium did something that she had refused to allow herself to do since her beloved Odysseus had died. She rested her head on her arms and she wept.

***

"Okay, let's see what you've _really_ got," Princess Rei of Mars said, grinning dangerously. "I've heard a lot about your 'super-strong attacks', Sailor Moon, but there is more than that to being a Senshi of the Silver Millennium."

"I'm sure that there is," Eternal Sailor Moon replied with a nearly undetectable smile. With a gesture she summoned the Moon Soul Blade from her subspace pocket and ignited its' blue-white energy blade. With a much grander and more elaborate hand move, Rei pulled out the Mars Soul Blade and activated its' blood red blade. "Whenever you are ready," Sailor Moon said with a smile, taking up a classic 'guard' position.

With a growl, Mars leapt forwards, lashing out at Serena, who caught the high cut with an effortless parry. The blonde-haired future princess caught several other high cuts before suddenly lowering her blade and launching a series of cuts at Mars' abdomen. The violet-haired woman had to lower her own sword and back off to avoid being gutted like a food animal. Mars frowned. _Okay, so she isn't an easy mark_, she told herself. _Settle down now, Rei, and get on with the fight_.

Princess Serenity moved a little closer to Prince Endymion. "What is it, love?" he asked.

"I always hate this," she murmured in reply. "I know that it is only practice, but it seems so _real_. I'm always terrified that they are going to hurt one another."

Actually, Endymion wasn't convinced that Mars _was_ practising, but he wasn't about to tell that to his beloved. Instead, he gave her a little hug. "Never fear, Sere," he said in a deliberately teasing tone. "They are professionals. They know what they are doing." Then he gasped and winced as Mars got inside Moon's defences and lashed out with a vertical top-to-bottom cut that should have bisected the shorter girl from head to groin. However, the future Senshi somersaulted sideways out of the way, sweeping the ground with her Soul Blade as she did so and forcing Mars to jump backwards or have both of her feet cut off at the ankles. Mars charged forwards again with a vicious downwards blow that Sailor Moon caught on her sword. Then the blonde girl twisted sideways, locking blades with her opponent. Mars disengaged before Moon could flip her sword out of her hand and backed off, panting hard.

After a moment, Sailor Moon moved forwards and sent several exploratory cuts and jabs Mars' way. Then she had to block an alternating cut to either side of her neck. She whirled, knocking aside Mars' sword as it came in low from the right and almost slashed her opponent open from hip to shoulder.

With a hiss of fury, Mars charged again, using all of her strength and expertise to drive the future form of her Princess back. Finally, she dropped down and feinted at Serena's knees before flipping her blade upwards, making the girl throw herself on her back to avoid the cut. With a cry of triumph she jumped on Moon's chest and held the point of her Soul Blade at her throat. "I win, Highness," she said, still breathing very hard.

"Actually, Mars, I think it is a draw," Jupiter commented, pointing downwards. Rei looked down and, much to her surprise, saw Moon's Soul Blade nearly touching the base of her breastbone, ready to thrust up into her heart in a moment.

There was a long, deadly pause before Senshi Mars started laughing and extinguished her blade. She stepped back away from Sailor Moon. "Well played, Princess," she said. "I should have been more careful and made sure that you were disarmed. How did you learn to fight like that?"

"Well, Darien taught me a few moves," Serena replied, smiling at her fiancé. "However, most of my sword-fighting, I learnt from… well, you." 

Rei looked at her future self out of the corner of her eyes and noted that Raye was proud and smug. "Well, I'm glad that 'I' did my job properly," she said dryly. Raye just rolled her eyes in disbelief.

Serenity visibly sagged in relief as the two warriors moved apart, clearly pleased with the result. However, she had the strangest feeling that, just maybe, she hadn't seen her future self's best efforts. _Leadership is a strange art_, she reminded herself. _Sometimes you have to do something a little less obvious in order to get the results you need_.

***

Jadeite licked his lips nervously. Sailor Moon had wandered away from the rest of the practising Senshi and was leaning against a tree, staring meditatively into nothing. She had taken off her tiara and was twirling it around a finger. As the discus-like magical weapon whirled around, it was making a high-pitched singing whine. Taking his courage in both hands, Jadeite cleared his throat. "Your Highness?" 

Serena's head snapped around. She still hadn't got used to the way that the people of her mother's court continued to refer to her by her title. Although she was uncomfortable being 'Your Highness' 'The Princess of the White Moon' or, more commonly, 'Senshi Moon', she now realised that the court was far more formal than her usual interactions with her friends. She managed to put a suitably serene and regal expression on her face and replied. "Yes, Colonel Jadeite, can I help you?" she asked.

The young Terran soldier looked a bit distracted to Serena. Indeed, he looked more than a little upset. "Your Highness, I have come to ask for your help with Senshi Mars… _Your_ Senshi Mars."

Serena blinked in some surprise. "What kind of help do you need?" she asked. She tensed slightly. She would have to guard her words very carefully if she were to avoid interfering with the timeline.

Jadeite smiled. Thanks to his psychic abilities, he could sense the sudden tension in the future version of his liege-lord's fiancée. Endymion had already warned them that the future Senshi would not, indeed _could_ not answer any answers about the future. However, he felt that Senshi Pluto would forgive a plea from the heart. "Princess, you must know that I would never willingly hurt Rei in any way," he said. "Yet her future self treats me as if I am a dangerous criminal. Please, what has happened to us in your time?"

"Jadeite…" Serena sighed and her inner eye suddenly saw the leering visage of Harbinger in the last few seconds before she used the Silver Imperium Crystal to dissolve the monster that had once been one of her soul-mate's bodyguards into stray sub-atomic particles. "Jadeite, I cannot tell you anything about the future, you know that." Jadeite was about to protest, but instead he turned away with an expression of defeat and sadness. Serena's pure heart groaned at the pain in his posture. "Jadeite, I will tell you that Raye has been under a lot of pressure and she is letting old and irrelevant hurts interfere with her dealings with you. I will ask her to make peace with you, because _you_ have done nothing to deserve her enmity."

Jadeite smiled. "Thank you, your Highness," he said. Then he walked away with a definite spring in his step.

Serena sighed and leaned back against the tree again. She _hated_ time travel…

***

"Serena! I can't _believe_ that you're saying this!" Raye protested loudly. Serena winced at her friend's loud tone and gestured desperately for her to speak more quietly. Raye sucked in a deep breath before continuing in a more discreet tone of voice. "He is the person who tried to kill Rini! He is one of Beryl's top generals…!"

"No he isn't!" Serena contradicted. "That is something that he won't be for a long time yet, and even then it is only his body, not his soul." Raye opened her mouth to protest again, but Serena cut her off, surprising Raye. She had never thought that the day would come when Ondango took such total control of a situation or conversation. "Raye, you have to understand that this is tearing him apart. Regardless of who and what he will become or what he might become, the Jadeite of this time is a good man who loves your past self."

Those words seemed to tear at Raye. Much to Serena's shock, the super-tough Senshi of Mars started to cry. Serena held her best friend as tightly as she could, at a loss as to what was wrong. "I never stopped loving him," Raye finally managed to grate out. "Even when we were fighting for our lives against him, it was all I could do not to shout out that I still loved him!"

__

Gods, what a mess! Serena thought hopelessly. She rubbed Raye's back and let the other woman cry on her shoulder.

"And… and when I see him with her… with _me_… It reminds me of everything I've lost!" Raye's voice was low and broken now. "It's so _unfair_!"

Serena drew in a deep breath. "Raye," she said, holding her friend at arm's length so she could look her in the eye. "Listen to me. 'Whatever will be, will be.' You can't avoid the pain of our destinies and the destiny of the Silver Millennium. What you _can_ do is avoid causing extra pain. Please, make your peace with Jadeite, if only for your peace of mind and his. Besides," here Serena grinned, "you don't want any unsaid stuff hanging over your head when you're with Chad, do you?"

"CHAD? Serena, I would _never_…" Raye cut off her protest when she realised that, firstly, her Princess was teasing her and, secondly, she was protesting a little _too_ much and was in serious danger of revealing her feelings. It shocked her that Serena understood her ambivalence towards Jadeite… but it shouldn't. Serena had always been closest to their hearts. She always knew the feelings in the hearts of her Senshi.

"Acknowledging how you felt and how you _still _feel about Jadeite isn't betraying Chad," Serena said in a calm, reasonable tone of voice. "It is who you are. Don't be afraid of these truths, or it will poison every relationship that you ever have." Serena managed an embarrassed smile. "Hey, it sounds good, even if I'm not sure if it makes any sense."

Raye shook her head. She usually noticed that switch from Serena to Serenity and back again, but this time she hadn't. It had taken seeing their past selves in the flesh for her to realise that Serena _was_ Serenity; Their personalities and habits were identical. "Okay," she said at last. "I'll try… But if he tries _anything_…"

"If he tries anything, your past self will toast him before you get the chance," Serena said with a wink. "Which is a pity. He's quite a looker."

Raye did a landed fish impression for a few moments before sticking her tongue out at Serena and walking away. Just before she was out of earshot, she remembered an obligation. "Thanks… Sere-chan," she called over her shoulder.

Serena stood still for a long moment before a single tear tracked down her cheek. "You've never called me 'Sere-chan' before, Raye-chan," she said to herself. Suddenly, her communicator started to bleep for attention. Serena pulled it out and flipped it open. "Moon here," she rapped out firmly.

"_Princess, please come to my laboratories_," said Princess Ami, this era's Senshi Mercury.

"I'm on my way, Mercury," Serena replied and strode off, remembering once again the dire mission that had brought her to this place and time.

***

A few minutes later, Jadeite was sitting on the banister of one of the palace's balconies, overlooking the main courtyard. He was considering an intelligence estimate about how many of Earth's people were likely to side with Beryl if she were to invade her homeworld. He was distracted when a shadow fell across the faxed document.

He looked up and his annoyance turned to surprise when he saw the future version of his soul mate standing over him. He struggled to stand up and take on an appropriately respectful posture. "Er… Lady Raye! What can I do for you?"

Raye seemed to be struggling with something. "General, I think the time has come for there to be total truth between us," she said at last. "I am not the same person as the woman you love. Too much has happened for me to feel the same way as she does on a whole range of topics and relationships. But… But there is something that I want you to know." Raye walked up to Jadeite until they were nearly touching and she looked up into his icy blue eyes. "Jadeite, no matter what happens in the future between you and my past self, please remember that even in my far future, I still remember you as my first love; The man who taught the harsh and friendless Champion of Fire and Passion to love. And that is the way that I shall always truly remember you, no matter what trials come between us."

Then Raye stood up on her tiptoes and placed a gentle kiss on the startled Terran's forehead. "Farewell, Jadeite of Earth," she said, then turned and strode away.

Jadeite stood unmoving for a long time, his eyes reflecting a deep sadness, but also a sense of relief. Finally, he rediscovered his voice. "Goodbye, Rei," he whispered.

***

"They don't even have an inkling, do they?" Lita asked. Mina turned around and looked at what caught the tall brunette's attention. Just a few yards away, the Senshi of the Silver Millennium were sparring as Generals Zoicite, Kunzite and Nephrite looked on in admiration and… yes, in love. 

"What do you mean?" Mina asked.

Lita scowled. "They don't realise who it is that they are leaving themselves so _open_ to," Lita grated. "That, one day soon, the men that they love are going to _kill _them with a smile…"

"They aren't those people yet, Lita-chan," Mina replied. "In fact, I don't think that they ever _will _be." That caught Lita's attention. Mina smiled gently as she basked in the waves of true love rippling from the three pairs of soul mates. "Maybe it is the benefit of having had more of my memories from this time than you from the start, but I never really hated the Generals." Lita's mouth dropped open in surprise. The bubbly blonde grinned, pleased to have confounded her friend. "I could remember the _real_ Kunzite and Zoicite from the beginning, Lita. I could tell at once that those… _monsters_…that we were fighting weren't really them. I guess I would have broken down if I hadn't managed that. To have to fight my soul mate to the death…" A single tear ran down Mina's face.

"Hey! Are you okay?" Lita asked, grabbing Mina's hand and squeezing it reassuringly. Simultaneously, she wished that she could manage that trick of disassociation. It would make being around Nephrite so much easier.

"Just remember the good times," the Senshi of Love and Light said quietly. "Remember all the times that Nephrite made you glad to be alive. That way, there is no room for bitterness, no matter how lonely life gets."

With that, Mina jumped to her feet and strode off, leaving a befuddled Lita staring off into space on the perimeter of the training area. She had a lot to think about now.

***

Serena strode into Princess Ami's laboratories, her face reflecting her usual easy-going demeanour. She smiled slightly at seeing Amy standing next to her past self. Both were in their Senshi fukus, and were, therefore, almost completely indistinguishable. Only the fact that _her_ Sailor Mercury was shorter and had slightly darker hair set her apart. "So what is the big deal, Amy-chan?" Serena asked her wise friend.

"We have constructed a containment chamber for the Nightshade Crystal that, hopefully, your squad will collect from the Negaverse," Ami announced. She held up what looked like a thermos flask with transparent sides. Ami unscrewed the cap. "Simply put the sample into the container, replace the lid and twist." Ami followed her own instructions. There was an electronic whine and the container was filled with a blue light. "The light is from an Earth-built stasis generator, which Lord Zoicite was kind enough to supply to us," Ami announced. "It will keep the sample completely inert and isolated from the surrounding continuum until the time has come to analyse it."

Serena blinked at that glut of information and looked at Amy in a helpless way. Somehow the future Sailor Mercury managed to restrain a girlish giggle. "She means that it will keep it completely safe, and will stop it from infecting anyone," Amy explained. 

Serena nodded wisely. "Yeah, I knew that," she lied. "So how are we supposed to find this thing?"

Amy pointed to a nearby workbench where five TACS handsets lay. "We have calibrated these TACS units to search for the Nightshade Crystal's distinctive magical dampening field," Amy explained. "They should lead you straight to a large concentration of the stuff."

Serena picked up one of the handset and turned it on. She was glad that as soon as she did so, the display lit up with 'Nightshade Crystal Seeking Function.' At least she wouldn't have to figure out how to use _this_ complex bit of technology. "This is good," Serena said. "Well done, both of you." Amy blushed brightly and looked a bit bashful, grinding the tip of one of her boots into the floor. Princess Ami just barely managed to stop herself from looking smug. "So, we only have to wait for Senshi Venus to be up and healthy before we can go."

"You don't have to wait at all," said a familiar voice. Princess Minako stood at the door behind Serena. She was wearing her gold and orange fuku. Although she looked a bit pale and shaky, she also looked resolute.

"Are you sure, Mina-chan?" Ami asked her commander in a worried tone of voice. "Your bio-etheric energy patterns still haven't settle down to normal and…"

"I'm sure, Ami-chan," Minako replied. She turned to Serena and grinned. "That's our Mercury, always worrying. But if we waited to be 100% by her standards, none of us would ever get out of the healer's ward."

Serena touched the past Senshi Venus on the shoulder in gratitude. She could _feel _that the other woman wasn't entirely healed yet, but she also appreciated that she didn't want to hesitate while Rini's life was on the line. "Thank you, sister," she said quietly. She turned back to Amy. "Ames, call Lita, Princess Rei and my mother. We're heading off to the Negaverse!"

__

To be continued…


End file.
